The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) Library

The Institute of Ethiopian Studies Library (IES Library) came in to being in 1963 together with the foundation of the mother organization Institute of Ethiopian Studies. It is one of the Addis Ababa University’s principal research libraries, as well as the world’s premier center of information and documentation about Ethiopia. Currently the Library resides in the historic Gännäta Le’ul (‘Prince’s paradise’) palace, which Emperor Haile Sellassie had bequeathed to the Addis Ababa University in 1961.

The Library Departments and its administrative unit are located at different floors inside the palace building. The Foreign language department is found at the ground floor (also known as Ras Makonnen Hall). The Ethiopian languages and Periodicals department, the Manuscripts and Archives department, the Technical processing department, and the Administrative Unit of the Library are found on the first floor. The Woldämäskäl Memorial Research Center that houses a bulk of archival documents of the library is located at Arat Kilo near by the St. Gabriel Church.

Objectives of the Library

The main objective of the Library is to foster and facilitate research in all fields of Ethiopian studies, most particularly in the humanities and social studies. It also helps in the preservation of the Ethiopian cultural heritage by collecting, organizing, processing and making accessible for researchers. The library is also responsible:

• To provide information for the present-day scholars, students and researchers;
• To preserve the country’s literary and bibliographic heritage;
• To maintain a center that assist serious researches on Ethiopian Studies;
• To maintain within its premises a library of books, in any languages, concerning Ethiopia and Ethiopian studies of all kinds; also as complete a collection as possible of books (on any subject) printed in Ethiopian languages (including newspapers and periodicals); and
• To form and maintain within its premises a collection of Ethiopian manuscripts, in particular those of antiquity, or of special historical or linguistic interest.

Collection of the Library

The Library has very rich collection of books, periodicals pamphlets, photographs, and fast growing archival materials both in Ethiopian and Foreign Languages. The collection includes published and unpublished materials. Some of the rare collections are books and periodicals published outside Ethiopia before the inception of printing press in the country, and some are those published in Ethiopia since the advent of printing press in the country. The collection exclusively focuses on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. It now comprises about 100,000 books, 1,800 M.A. and M.Sc. theses and Ph.D. dissertations, over 9,000 student senior essays, 1,340 periodical titles, about 3,000 Ge’ez, Amharic and Arabic manuscripts, nearly 400 magico-medical scrolls, over 14,000 archival items, 290 photographic albums, 38,000 individual photographs, over 16,000 reels of microfilms, 120 boxes of microfiche, over 1,000 slides, pamphlets, invitation cards, letters of individuals,  beside numerous maps and other materials. There are some collections of audio and video tapes too.

User Services

The types of services currently delivered to the users of the library are:·        Circulation services (on the spot reading services);·        Referral services (quick answers to user queries and guide to sources);·        Information retrieval services (guiding users how to use the Library’s card catalogue system);·         Photocopy services;·        Photo-scanning services;

·         Microfilm reading and/or printing services.

There is also a new research center called the Woldämäskäl Memorial Research Center (WMMRC), which is donated to AAU by Blatten Geta Mahtämä Sellassie Woldämäskäl, inherited from his father Tsähafi Tizaz Woldämäskäl Tariku, in 1963 E.C. to be used as a center of promoting Ethiopian Studies. Currently, the center has collected a large number (about 353,640 files) of archives that have permanently valuable records from different government and non-government institutions.

Opening Hours   Monday – Saturday     8:00 am - 5:00 pmPublic holidays           Closed