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Librarian
Sadeck Casoojee (scasoojee@iziko.org.za)
Assistant Librarian
Cindy Ludidi (cludidi@iziko.org.za)
Library assistant
Vicki Maccrae (maccrae@iziko.org.za)
Mondays – Fridays : 08:00 – 16:30
Closed on Saturdays and public holidays.
Iziko SA Museum
25 Queen Victoria Street
Cape Town
8000
South Africa
Telephone: 021 481 3899
Fax: 021 481 3993 The Natural History
Collections Library is a resource for the professional and scientific staff of the
museums to support their scientific research, preparation for
exhibitions and educational activities.
The Natural History Collections Library reflects the strengths of the Iziko
Museums of Cape Town's collections and exhibitions, with particular
emphasis on South African natural history.
The Library's collection is strong in the following subjects:
anthropology, vertebrate and invertebrate taxonomy and zoology, earth
and environmental sciences.
The Iziko Museums of Cape Town's Natural History Collections
Library forms a major natural history resource in South Africa. Our
objectives are to conserve, acquire, retrieve and disseminate
information to support the work of the Museum staff and to make the
collection available for the scientific and educational activities of
organisations and individuals.
Although no earlier reference is known, it is likely a small
collection of books were available to scientific staff from the South
African Museum's inception in 1855 for when the museum was
re-established in 1855, the South African Literary and Scientific
Institution transferred its collections of books to the museum. This
formed the nucleus of what, from the very beginning, was styled the
Library. From the beginning too, the necessity to build it up by
donations, purchase and exchange was realised by the trustees and
curators. The library was primarily intended for use by the museum
staff.
The Natural History Collections Library is the finest Natural
History Collections Library
in South Africa. It also holds significant volumes on the voyages and
travels by Europeans during the 18th and 19th centuries, including
those of HMS Challenger and Discovery Expeditions. Much of the wealth
of the library lies in the holdings of long runs of
scientific periodicals, many of which are not held elsewhere in South
Africa. The library also has an important and valuable collection of
rare books and journals.
The library is a art collections library to the general public and
only lends material to its staff, but we do lend through the Request
Interlibrary loan system to other libraries. So if you would like to
borrow material from the library collection, or get a copy of an
article from one of our journals, see your local library who can
arrange the request on your behalf. The Natural History Collections Library
charges the standard library rates for interlibrary loans and document
delivery. All interlibrary loans and document delivery requests should
be arranged through a library (either a local public or academic
library), but check with your own library first to see if they provide
this service and enquire what charges apply to do so.
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