For 40 years now, ISEAS Library has been functioning as a unique de facto regional library and information centre. It houses more than a half a million items of comprehensive collections of research materials on the applied social sciences dating mostly from the nineteenth century with emphases on Southeast Asia. The print and multimedia collections are in the region’s languages as well as in English and other Asian and European languages.

ISEAS Library has been described in various ISEAS Annual Reports as “the intellectual centre of the Institute”, “the heart of the Institute”, “the heart of research facilities of the Institute”, and “the cornerstone of the Institute’s research support”.

Indeed, the indispensable value of ISEAS Library as the backbone of ISEAS research process was recognized early in the founding of the Institute. Its set-up was begun one year before the Act of Parliament, June 1968 was passed to establish the Institute, when four support staff were recruited under the direction of the National Library. By June 1968 there were already 2,000 volumes of books.

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