Printed Collections
Librarian: Edward Weech
Contact: ew@royalasiaticsociety.org
The Society’s Library includes over 80,000 books, journals, and pamphlets
The printed collections date back to the sixteenth century. In subject and language they span the whole of the Asian continent as well as adjacent regions, with Indian and Persian cultures particularly well-represented. The core of the printed collections is nineteenth-century material, and the collection is representative of the development of Oriental studies from the late-eighteenth to early-twentieth centuries. A vast range of subjects are covered, with the main strengths being in languages, philology, art, history, literature, religion, and philosophy.
We can make available any books from our collection for you to read during opening hours in our Reading Room. The collection is ‘closed-access’, which means the shelves are not available for browsing. However, most of our books are listed on our online catalogue which can be accessed here .
Comprehensive cataloguing of the printed collection is well advanced, and a majority of printed works in our collection are described online. If you cannot find an item in our catalogue, please contact us to see if we can help.
Fellows of the Society are allowed to borrow some of our most recent books, at the discretion of the Librarian.
Many of our records can also be searched on Copac.
We also have various printed catalogues which may help in the retrieval of some older material. Please contact us for further information.