Institute of Commonwealth Studies Printed Sources Collections

Title: Institute of Commonwealth Studies Printed Sources Collections

Description: The ICS Library is a major research collection for those working on the Commonwealth or any of its member states. It has a growing collection of some 180,000 volumes and 9,000 periodical and annual publications. Emphasis is given to the contemporary history, politics, political economy, economics, international relations, human rights and related, social science, issues of all Commonwealth countries and former members.
The library specialises in providing material which is unavailable elsewhere in the UK: 70% of our material is published in non-UK countries of the Commonwealth and 40% are official and government publications.

ICS has a collection of exceptional and often unique materials relating to the Caribbean, including:
West India Committee material - deposited at ICS by the Crown Agents in 1977, it includes rare books and archives from the 18-20th centuries, including material relating to the British West Indies Regiment (1916-17) and the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (founded in the 1920s and the forerunner of UWI St Augustine), and sketch maps and watercolours of Tobago, St Vincent and Antigua by Sir William Young (1749-1815), Governor of Tobago. Further deposits of archive material from the WIC are planned in 1999.
Simon Taylor Papers - the papers of Jamaica sugar tycoon Simon Taylor (1740-1813), consisting mainly of 2,000 letters, written and received between 1770 and 1835 by him, his family and heirs, and his friends and business partners. Subject matter ranges from the domestic (illness, family quarrels, bigamy) to business (slaves, shipping, hurricanes, the introduction of steam power on an estate), to the Maroon and French wars and the politics of Abolition.
A special collection is the Colonial Office Confidential Print, relating to the West Indies (1826-1961) - covers diplomatic correspondence, memoranda and reports originally produced for limited circulation within the British government.
C.L.R. James Papers - given to ICS by James himself in 1966, they consist mainly of documents created and collected during the period he was in the Caribbean between 1958 - when he returned to Trinidad to become editor of The Nation and Secretary of the West Indian Federal Labour Party - and 1962.
Commonwealth Political Party, Trade Union and Pressure Group Materials - a large collection of material such as party constitutions, policy statements, convention reports and manifestos, as well as election campaign ephemera from Caribbean organisations from the 1950s onwards.

The Library has collected occasional key reports on UK government policy towards race and ethnicity and from organisations, including the Commonwealth Secretariat, who have addressed the connection between colonialism and the Commonwealth contemporary issues of ethnicity and race as they exist within the UK. However, because the Institute Library has historically collected materials relating to non-UK Commonwealth countries, the collection of materials that pertain to black and Asian peoples in Britain is very small.
A recent audit of the Library's printed collections measured the Caribbean holdings to be at least 17,500 items, thus amounting to 10% of the entire collection. This includes numerous official and unofficial annual publications and approximately 89 journal titles.
The Library also contains important archive and special collections relating to the Caribbean region - these have been described in the archive section of the database. The Colonial Office Confidential Print special collection relating to the West Indies (1826-1961) - includes diplomatic correspondence, memoranda and reports originally produced for limited circulation within the British government. The Library's collection of bibliographies is also particularly strong and these can be used to identify Caribbean material published throughout the world. National bibliographies are held from those countries that publish them, together with a range of subject bibliographies.

Strengths: The ICS Library is a major research collection for those working on the Commonwealth or any of its member states. It has a growing collection of some 180,000 volumes and 9,000 periodical and annual publications. Emphasis is given to the contemporary history, politics, political economy, economics, international relations, human rights and related, social science, issues of all Commonwealth countries and former members.
The library specialises in providing material which is unavailable elsewhere in the UK: 70% of our material is published in non-UK countries of the Commonwealth and 40% are official and government publications.

Size: Some 180,000 volumes and 9,000 periodical and annual publications. Of these, at least 17,500 items pertaining to the Caribbean, including 89 journal titles.

Catalogue: Innopac

Catalogue URL: http://lib.sas.ac.uk

Main URL: http://www.sas.ac.uk/commonwealthstudies/library/library.html

Access: Any member of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies can use the library (subject to any restrictions on access to particular collections). Membership of ICS is free to academic staff and postgraduate students from the UK or abroad. Benefits include use of the Library and common room, attendance at ICS seminars, and a regular newsletter.
Undergraduates can use the Library as non-paying occasional readers. Other researchers can use the library by becoming members (apply to the Administrative Secretary), or as occasional readers for a small charge (apply to the Library).
http://www.sas.ac.uk/commonwealthstudies/library/libaccess.html

Acquisition dates: 1949-

Note:

Interest: Caribbean, Black, Asian

Complete: Complete

Subjects

Nongovernmental organisations

Slavery

Abolition of slavery

Interethnic relations

Colonial countries

Colonialism

Agriculture

Plantation economy

Sugar plantations

Economic development

International relations

Human rights

Economics

Politics

History

Educational policy

Ethnic groups

Decolonisation

Developing countries

Personal/Corporate names

West India Committee

Society for Caribbean Studies

Association of Caribbean Historians

William Young, Sir

Simon Taylor

James, C L R

Places

Turks and Caicos Islands

Trinidad and Tobago

St Vincent and the Grenadines

St Lucia

Saint Christopher and Nevis

Montserrat

Jamaica

Guyana

Grenada

Dominica

Cayman Islands

British Virgin Islands

Bermuda

Belize

Barbados

Bahamas

Antigua and Barbuda

Anguilla

Caribbean