The Pacific Research Collections at the Australian National University is made up of the more established collections of the ANU Library, the Pacific Manuscript Bureau and the newly established Pacific Research Archives, together with extensive collections of Pacific Islands research materials gathered by various other parts of the University such as the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, the University Archives, the RSPAS Cartography and Photography Units, and the various research Divisions of RSPAS, including Pacific History, Linguistics, Political and Social Change, State Society and Governance, the Land Management Group, Archaeology and Natural History, and Anthropology. The PRA complements the Pacific Collection by collecting, preserving and cataloguing archival material produced by researchers studying the Pacific Islands, including published and unpublished material from and about the Pacific Islands which the researchers have gathered.

ANU Library

http://anulib.anu.edu.au/lib_home.html
The Australian National University has had a longstanding interest in research in the Pacific Island nations and territories. This is reflected in the strength of the Pacific resources held in its libraries. The University Library has been collecting Pacific research, study and teaching materials for well over forty years and represents a major resource for Pacific Island studies and research in Australia and the region. The collection focuses on the history and society of all Pacific island countries and territories, although there is a distinct emphasis on Papua New Guinea and Melanesia in general.

The Library will continue the ongoing role of collecting, developing and providing access to scholarly resources in all formats to all ANU staff, students and affiliated borrowers or users. In this regard, all publications in whatever format, donated by retired Pacific scholars, researchers and experts will be carefully cross–checked against the ANU Library holdings in order to weed out the duplicates. Those not held will be further assessed or evaluated to make sure that they do meet the criteria of having long-lasting research value. These will be catalogued and added to the Pacific Collection.

Communication between Faculty staff and the Pacific Resources Officer is maintained to ensure that all known relevant and appropriate publications are acquired for the Pacific Collection.

The Pacific Collection is a depository for publications produced by several regional organisations including the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the South Pacific Environmental Programme (SPREP).

The ANU Library is a founding member of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, therefore receives all that is produced.

Pacific Manuscript Bureau

http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/
The Pacific Manuscript Bureau (PMB) is a joint copying project which helps to preserve and make accessible archives, manuscripts and rare printed material relating to the Pacific Islands, giving priority to endangered archives and to records of contemporary organisations and movements in the Islands. Much of the PMB's operations consists of extensive field projects carried out in collaboration with organisations and individuals in the Pacific Islands.

The PMB is based in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Currently chaired by Professor Brij Lal, it is directed and funded by a consortium of nine specialist Pacific research libraries. (They are: the National Library of Australia, Australian National University Library, Alexander Turnbull Library, University of Auckland Library, University of Hawaii Library, the Library of the University of California at San Diego, Yale University Library, University of Michigan Library.) It is the world's longest running example of continuous international cooperation on archives preservation and distribution.

Since it was established in 1968 the PMB has produced more than 3,500 reels of preservation microfilm which is the most extensive collection of non-government primary documentation on the Pacific Islands available to researchers. The documents on PMB microfilms include: archives of Christian missions and churches, whaling, shipping, plantations, traders and other businesses, trade unions and NGOs, political parties and colonial administrations and judiciaries; together with personal records of civil administrators, politicians, missionaries, explorers and travellers, planters, traders, beachcombers and scientists. Printed documents microfilmed by the PMB include mission journals, colonial administration newsletters, independent Pacific Islands newspapers and rare scientific serials. Topics include: Island cultures, climate, land ownership, languages, religions, ethnography, anthropology, social and constitutional development, education, industries, agriculture, war and militarisation, tourism, transport, communications, politics and civil administration.

In addition to making preservation microfilm the PMB also produces digitally reformatted copies of audio recordings and photographs, and (with the permission of the owners of the original records) scans microfilm to digital format on demand. The PMB has published complete catalogues and indexes and detailed listings of the documents on PMB microfilms are accessible on-line from the PMB website at http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu.