• Library
  • Admission and Services
  • Library Catalogue
  • Resources

Research

• Africa
• Americas
• Asia
• Energy, Environment and Development
• Europe
• International Economics
• International Law
• International Security
• Middle East
• Russia and Eurasia
• Global Trends - Food Supply

Admission and Services

We encourage all readers to contact the Library prior to their first visit, so we can clarify their research needs, and, if appropriate, collect in advance material that is not readily available.

Members and Staff

Access to members and staff is free.

Non Members

Non members' ticket fees:
Daily: £10
Weekly: £35
Monthly: £75

Graduate Students

Special ticket fee for graduate students:
£35 for one month
A letter of introduction or proof of status is required

Groups

Special rates for group access for academic institutions are available.

Services*

Photocopying (self-service)
10p per page
Guidelines on the amount of photocopying permitted under copyright law are displayed and users are responsible for ensuring that the limits are adhered to.

Microfilm/fiche (self-service)
20p per copy

Inter-library loan
£15 per item
Service for members only

* Download Photocopy Request Forms:

Please ask for details of charges for copying undertaken by Library staff. Articles cost £10 per item; please send the payment with your completed form.

Request for copy of article
Request for copy of part of published work
Request for copy of whole or part of unpublished work

Paper Materials

The Library contains approximately:

150,000 books and pamphlets
300 periodicals
20 current newspapers
The collections focus especially on politics, economics, security and the environment, covering approximately 30 years for books and 15 years for periodicals.

The books and pamphlets section contains both reference and lending material on open and closed stacks. Only members and staff of the Institute may borrow lending material.

The periodicals are selectively indexed; references to articles are accessible via our online database.

Newspapers include all major British broadsheets, plus papers in Russian, German, French and Italian, and a range of international papers in English. There is a special collection of newspaper cuttings for the period 1924-1997 listed in a separate subject index.

Chatham House Archives

Chatham House's Archives are available upon application (in writing) to the Librarian. They include:

• meetings transcripts from 1920 onwards;
• study group files;
• Institute of Pacific Relations conference reports;
• British Commonwealth Relations conferences.

Records are made available when they are thirty years old, commonly referred to as a thirty year rule.

Some of the catalogues for these can be consulted as part of the "London Archives on the Wider World" theme on A2A (http://www.a2a.org.uk)- the English strand of the UK archives network.

Researchers wishing to consult the archives must apply in advance, in writing, to the Librarian.

Electronic Materials

Free Internet access
Online catalogue dating back to 1990
CD-ROMs, including:

• Keesings 1960-present
• International Who's Who
• Times & Sunday Times
• World Affairs Online
• And many more

Subscription electronic services, including:

• BBC Monitoring
• Ingenta
• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
• National Bureau of Economic Research
• Nexis

Some electronic services may incur a charge.