Since 2002, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit has maintained a library of Afghanistan-specific materials to support its own research. In 2003 the Society of South Asian Studies, formerly the British Institute of Afghan Studies (BIAS), agreed to donate an estimated 3,000 library books and offprints pertaining to Afghanistan and the region to the AREU Library. A condition of the donation was that the collection should remain in Afghanistan and be available for all researchers to use. The BIAS, established in Kabul in 1972, had undertaken a number of archaeological projects and supported British scholars conducting anthropological and ethnological fieldwork. In 1981 the Institute was closed down and the collection put into storage in the British Embassy.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Bob Knox, Carla Grissmann, Nicholas Sims-Williams and Jonathan Lee in arranging the donation of the collection to AREU, this unique resource has once again become available to researchers. Dr Andrew Wilder, director of AREU from 2002-05, with financial support from UNAMA, agreed that AREU would re-house the collection, provide staff to catalogue it and provide funds to expand the holdings.The growing collection now includes Afghan government publications from all periods as well as donor and NGO materials published about Afghanistan, relevant publications from UN agencies, periodicals, maps, CDs and DVDs. Of particular note are the holdings of the Official Gazette (Rasmi Jaridah) and the Statistical Handbook of Afghanistan. The collection currently has about 11,500 catalogued items, primarily in English, Dari and Pashto as well as in other languages (French, German, Italian and Russian). Approximately 2,000 older items await processing. The AREU library’s main aim is not to compete with international collections, but rather to gather and preserve relevant materials available both within Afghanistan and abroad for use by national and international researchers.

The library is located in the AREU office (corner of Flower Street and Street 2). It is open for researchers from 9am-12.30pm and 1-4pm, Sunday to Thursday (during Ramadan 8am-2pm). Closed on public holidays. All materials are available for use within the library, and photocopying is available. No materials can be borrowed. To contact the library staff, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .