Library
The library of the African Studies Centre Leiden is a research library, which is also open to the general public. The library consists of a digital and a paper library. The digital library gives access to an unlimited number of publications, the paper library holds 91,000 books about and from Africa, 90,000 journal articles and 1,700 films on DVD.
In line with university measures, ASCL staff will be working from home until further notice. They can be reached by email (see organisation). The office is closed, but general questions can be sent to asc@asc.leidenuniv.nl. All events until 1 September have been cancelled. Read more about the library regulations.
Quick search
The search 'All words' page will open in a new window.
Fiction never foretells the future. But sometimes it comes quite close. In 2016, South African writer Deon Meyer published his novel Koors (Fever), a story about a pandemic fever raging over the world, and wiping away 95% of the population, leaving only a few people left, including father and son Willem and Nico in South Africa. Elements of the COVID-19 pandemic seem present in the book. Two staff members of the ASCL Library, ardent fans of Deon Meyer’s novels, interviewed Meyer by email.
Although all Leiden University Libraries locations, including the ASCL Library, are closed, it is still possible to borrow books. The items can be requested online and picked up at one of four loactions in Leiden or The Hague. Find out all the details.
Just before the corona crisis, the ASCL Library acquired a number of books from CERDOTOLA (International Centre for research and documentation on African traditions and languages), based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Volume 2 of the Atlas linguistique du Cameroun is a bibliography on Cameroonian languages that includes references to works of different disciplines. And in the collective work The Grassfields of Cameroon researchers examine the construction of the identity or maybe identities of this region. Read the latest Library Highlight!
This book, published in 2019, explores Africa’s vulnerability to disease and epidemics, as well as how recent epidemics have been dealt with and controlled. The authors make a case for a multi-faceted approach to building effective national health systems and combating epidemics, arguing that political, socio-economic and environmental factors are all at play. A good read given the challenge which Africa and the world now face in the form of COVID-19. Read the Library Highlight!
On the occasion of the Africa 2020 year, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier about African leaders of independence. It is a ‘growing’ web dossier that will be expanded monthly. It has now been updated with sections on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Benin. Also check out the ingenious timeline we created in correspondence with the web dossier.
