The University’s research collections for imperial, international and global history are held in various libraries of Oxford University Library Services (OULS). Combined they form an outstanding collection of manuscripts, rare books and monographic material for area studies, such as the Commonwealth countries, the Orient, South Asia, Japan and China.

Since 1950 the Bodleian Library has been a depository library for UN publications and, for instance, holds a substantially complete set of League of Nations publications. The Bodleian’s collection of official publications is furthermore supplemented by holdings of foreign government publications held in a number of other Oxford libraries.

Commonwealth and Sub-Sarahan studies

The principal collection relating to the history of Commonwealth country and sub-Saharan Africa is housed in the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House. Commonly referred to as the Rhodes House Library, it specialises in the political, economic and social history and current affairs of the Commonwealth and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to printed publications (received under Legal Deposit or through purchase) and colonial government publications, the Library also holds some 4,000 manuscripts and is particularly strong in material relating to the history of British colonial administration. Collections of note are, for instance, the papers of the Anti-Slavery Society, The Fabian Colonial Bureau, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Sir Roy Welensky and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Hebrew Studies

The Bodleian Library has an extraordinarily rich collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books, dating back to the opening of the Library in 1602. Collection of the Hebrew books continued throughout the following centuries right up to the present. The Bodleian’s collections are supplemented by those of other libraries, most notably the Oriental Institute Library and the library of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

Oriental studies

The collection of Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts and printed books on the religion and civilisation of Islam are found predominantly in the Bodleian Library and the Oriental Institute Library. The Turkish collection includes a considerable number of publications in the modern Turkic languages of the former Soviet Union.

The Bodleian's holdings are strongest in the areas of classical and pre-modern Islam (to the end of the eighteenth century). The manuscripts exemplify most, if not all, the branches of learning cultivated in traditional Islamic society in the Middle East and North Africa, with particular strengths such as Arabic science. Together with the printed material, the collection constitutes a valuable resource for research into many different aspects of Islamic civilisation. The Library continues to build on the strengths of its Islamic collections by acquiring relevant material published world-wide and in a variety of languages.

The Bodleian’s Department of Oriental Collections hosts a set of the tapes and transcripts of Harvard University's Iranian Oral History Project.

South Asian studies

The principal collection relating to South Asian history is housed in the Indian Institute Library. It is a dependent library of the Bodleian Library specialising in the history and culture of South Asia, Tibet and the Himalayas. In addition, the Indian Institute Library also contains English language publications on Burma and Thailand. The collection covers the history and culture of South Asia from pre-history to the present day.

The history of the Bodleian Indic manuscript collection goes back to the first days of the Library, one of the most notable early accessions being the Ragamala given by Archbishop Laud in 1640. The Library has the largest known collection of Sanskrit manuscripts outside the Indian subcontinent, numbering some 11,000 items in all. It also has much smaller collections of manuscripts in other Indic languages such as Sinhala (just over 100 manuscripts), Tamil (just over 100 manuscripts) and  Pali (161 manuscripts).

Japanese studies

The principal collection relating to Japanese history is housed in the Bodleian Japanese Library. The collection covers the history and culture of Japan from dawn of her civilisation to the present day. The collection of Japanese local histories is probably the foremost such collection outside Japan. Works in European languages are also extensively acquired.

Chinese studies

The principal collection relating to the history of China is housed in the Institute for Chinese Studies Library. Chinese books were among the Library's earliest acquisitions after its foundation in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley and numbered over 100 volumes by the end of the 17th century. Active purchasing throughout the 19th century brought the holdings to over 2,500 titles. The Backhouse Collection, put together in Peking along the lines of a traditional Chinese scholar's library, was acquired between 1913 and 1922, and gave Oxford what at that time was one of the finest Chinese book collections outside the Far East. Since 1945 the collection has steadily expanded over the last six decades to the point where Oxford now has one of the largest and fastest-growing Chinese collections in Europe. 

The old book collections contain many rare and some unique works from the late Ming to the end of the Qing (late 16th to early 20th centuries). In particular, the Library holds an estimated quarter of all the Chinese books that came to Europe in the 17th century. The collection of 1,500 Protestant missionary publications of the 19th century is one of the most extensive in existence. The Backhouse Collection includes around one hundred Ming editions and a number of Qing palace editions, many of them seldom found outside the Far East.

Building on the foundations of the historic collections, the modern collection concentrates on traditional literature, history, philosophy and religion. More recently, the Library has begun to systematically acquire materials relating to the study of modern China. In both classical and modern areas, the coverage of local gazetteers is outstanding. There are also large sets of reprints of modern historical sources, including complete runs of the major newspapers of record.

Electronic resources

Oxford University Library Services (OULS) provides access to a growing collection of electronic resources via its resource discovery tool OxLIP+. These range from online databases and CD-ROMs to electronic journals. In addition to subscriptions to major databases, such as Historical Abstracts, Royal Historical Society Bibliography, Dictionary of National Biography, Cambridge Histories Online, Oxford Reference Online, Blackwell Reference Online, etc. and electronic journals, other major electronic subscriptions relevant to international history include:

• America: History and Life
• ASIA Official British Documents 1945-1965
• Bibliography of Asian Studies
• Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL)
• Chicano Database
• Early encounters in North America
• Empire Online, 1492-1969
• Encyclopedia of Islam
• Handbook of Latin American Studies
• Historical Statistics of the United States
• Index Islamicus
• United Nations Treaty Collection, 1946-

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