Our Books and Printed Material collection has grown to over 175,680 titles, including some 1380 reference texts, 3740 serials titles with 34,000 individual issues and nearly 16,000 books. They can all be found by searching our collection, while some famous titles such as Dawn and New Dawn can be viewed in Collections online.
Books and pamphlets
We collect printed material relating to all topics about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies including languages, culture and society, family history and biography, visual arts, creative arts, performing arts, songs and music, history, health, education, land rights, native title, business and economics, media, film and communications, environment, cultural heritage protection, sport, government policy, law and justice and Australian parliamentary reports.
Serials
Our Serials collection includes magazines, newspapers, Australian Bureau of Statistics reports, annual reports, transcripts of Royal Commissions and court cases, relevant House of Representatives and Senate Standing Committee Proceedings, Select Committee Proceedings and Joint Committee Proceedings.
Many of the documents generated by AIATSIS and our predecessor the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) are also contained in our Serials collection, including bound volumes of media monitoring tracked by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
Our Rare Serials Collection is held in secure temperature controlled storage facilities and include the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (vol. 1 1872 to present), Science of Man (vol.1 1896-vol.11 1913), Proceedings of the Linnean Society of NSW (1876 - 1911).
Reference collection
The Reference Collection includes publications dealing in bibliographic or factual information including dictionaries, encyclopedia, handbooks and surveys. Our aim with the Reference Collection is to ensure that the most authoritative titles in a given field are made available soon after publication and superseded items are regularly removed.
CD-ROMs in the collection
The CD-ROMs in the collection are available to the public in the Stanner Reading Room. They cover a wide range of subjects with many interactive and multimedia materials, and are arranged by subject in this list of CD-ROMs. You can ask staff in the reading room for access to the CD-ROMs.
Native Title and Link-Up
We also use the collection to research and support Native Title cases and Link-Up services to members of the Stolen Generations. This has been a fundamentally important service for Indigenous individuals and communities, and in our mind makes the Print collection invaluable.