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Home Anthropology Library

Anthropology Library
A.P. Maudslay in the Southern chamber, Casa de Monjas, Yucatan. RAI copyright.

The Anthropology Library, located within the Centre for Anthropology at the British Museum, incorporates the original Library of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and the Museum’s Ethnography Library, and is effectively Britain’s national anthropology library. The RAI contributes substantially to Library acquisitions and staffing. International exchange arrangements are also in place with scholarly institutions, under which the Library receives publications in exchange for RAI journals.

The Library is open to the public for reference and research. RAI Fellows have the special privilege of borrowing books and journals donated by the RAI (about 60% of total holdings). Both the RAI and the Museum’s Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas host seminars and other events in the Centre. The Department’s Collections Enquiries service is also located within the Centre.



Staff

Ted Goodliffe is the RAI's Library Officer and attends the Library on two days a week. Please contact him (telephone +44 (0)20 7323 8067,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you wish to discuss or comment on any aspect of the Library's services or policies or if you have any bibliographic or information enquiries. For urgent matters in his absence please contact the Senior Librarian, Jan Ayres (telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8069,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

 

The Collection

The Library’s holdings comprise more than 120,000 books and pamphlets and 4,000 journal titles, of which around 1,500 are current. The journal collection, which is indexed by the Anthropological Index Online, is particularly strong for Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. The Library also contains maps, newsletters, reports and a significant pictorial collection.

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Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT, United Kingdom, Email: Office Manager