It is so called because it holds works about all aspects of Maltese history and culture, and of the Order of St John, apart from a wide range of student dissertations. The collection houses well over 10,000 works and is probably the largest collection of its type in the world, next to that of the National Library of Malta.
The collection’s prestige lies in the vast range of rare and out-of-print material, first editions, and valuable imprints, including cartographic material that has been acquired over the years through donations, purchases, including from the antiquarian market, and since 2011 through selective legal deposit. The collection also includes runs of journals, newspapers and hard to find grey literature. This mass of holdings constitutes an important source of research material on local studies and is open to all bona fide researchers.
The reading room study area