About
The Library of The Royal Society of Western Australia is a small, but important, resource for scientific research. It contains nearly 700 books, and 986 serial titles of which around 200 are current. Most materials have been obtained on exchange for the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, and many of the overseas titles are not held elsewhere in WA.
The collection contains over 100 monographs published prior to 1900, many of them donated. These include several rare titles on early voyages to Australia, and on the botany of Australia.
The Society’s Library has been housed with the Western Australian Museum Library since 1960. The Museum Library is one of the oldest government libraries in the State with collection strengths in the areas of the natural sciences such as ornithology, palaeontology, malacology, marine invertebrates, earth sciences, Australian history, anthropology and archaeology, maritime archaeology, materials conservation and museology. Its collection includes over 20,000 monographs, over 2,500 serial titles and journals (of which some 693 are current), over 20,000 reprints, maps and other archived material, and more than 2,300 indexed reprints/articles on molluscs, many published over 50 years ago.
The resources of both libraries are available to the public for research. Articles may be purchased online and most books can be borrowed on interlibrary loan.
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