Library collections: a brief overview

Collections - an overview

Page contents > Governmental Collections and Statistics | Pamphlets | Archives and Rare Books | Electronic Resources

As well as the Main Collection, the Library has a separate Course Collection (multiple copies of key reading list texts for LSE students) and several special collections - some of which are highlighted here. Designated as an Outstanding Collection

All collections held at LSE in the Library have been recognised for their outstanding national and international importance and awarded 'Designation' status by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA)

Governmental Collections and Statistics

While UK government publications are naturally the most strongly represented, this collection does not end there. For other countries the Library aims to acquire central government publications containing social or economic data, or illustrating the processes of government and public administration. A special deposit agreement, dating from 1903, ensures an extensive collection of US federal government publications.

Since 1946 the Library has been a United Nations depository library, providing a comprehensive collection of UN publications and documents. Many other organisations are significantly represented, including OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), ILO (International labour Organization), OAS (Organization of American States) and GATT/WTO (General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade / World Trade Organization). As a European Documentation Centre, the Library has received publications from the European Community since 1964.

Some of the most important publications emanating from governments worldwide and intergovernmental organisations are statistical series (eg population censuses, trade statistics, national accounts) - providing the raw material for socio-economic analysis. The scale and coverage of the Library's collection of statistics has few rivals.

Pamphlets

Dating from the early nineteenth century to the present day, 90,000 pamphlets cover areas of political, economic, social and international history, and public affairs. Areas of particular strength include transport history, housing, the Welfare State, and the Poor Laws. Much of the material is propagandist and polemical - originating from pressure groups, political parties, and trade unions. The collection is international in scope with material in most European languages. Many of the most valuable items have been preserved on microfilm and some have been digitised for access via the Internet. The historic pamphlet collection is held in Archvies.

Archives and Rare Books

The Library's Archives collections offer unique primary source material of outstanding value for research into British political, economic and social history, social anthropology (mainly post-1890) and the history of philosophy. For example:

Political papers and UK election ephemera - from large and small organisations.
Collections relating to business, transport, social reformers and campaigning organisations.
Pioneering anthropologists' field notes, photographs, papers and correspondence.
Hall-Carpenter Archive of Lesbian and Gay History
Original survey notebooks and 'poverty maps' from Charles Booth's survey of Victorian
London.
The archives of LSE - also useful for research into the development of disciplines such as economics and philosophy.
Rare books and historic pamphlets - items selected from the main print collection for their rarity value or age.

The Archives are also home to rare books on political, economic and social questions; the history of socialism; economics; statistics; politics, political theory and government; British local history; and international travel and trade.

Electronic Resources

Our Electronic Resources collection brings together our databases and e-journals collections and provides access to a wide range of information services. A Data Library contains international micro-social, macro-economic, financial and geographical data. It includes over 20,000 e-journals, with many other publications also available electronically in full text - newspapers, working papers, government publications, statistics, etc. A termly programme of Information Skills Training equips LSE students and staff to make the most of these resources.

The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, along with other electronic databases, aids discovery of journal articles, books, reports and theses, using subject keywords.