This page explains what the subject of development studies covers, gives an overview of the material the British Library holds for this subject, and advice on how you can find and use it. It also gives details of current activities for developing the collections for this subject.
The study of cultural, demographic, economic, environmental, political and social change in low and middle income regions. Particular areas of interest include:
- sustainability of communities
- poverty reduction
- relationships between developed and developing countries
- local policy making and government
- development policy
- theories of development
Collection overview
Comprehensive holdings of UK published materials about the subjects above, including studies of countries outside the UK and of international organisations. The British Library has very strong collections on and from Commonwealth countries.
Related collections include Official Publications, the and publications of International Organisations. You can find all the publications of the United Nations, and development reports from many countries.
The Sound Archive has many relevant holdings including Oral History and World and Traditional Music.
Finding aids
- Explore the British Library to find details of books, reports, journal titles, newspapers, maps and many more parts of the Library’s collections
- See the list of electronic resources for social sciences available in our London Social Sciences Reading Room
- topical bibliographies on subjects such as Anti-Capitalism
- Web subject gateway via Intute Economics (see the sub-heading Development Economics)
- Eldis database of full-text reports and topic guides, from The Institute of Development Studies
Social Sciences Enquiry team
For more help on using the Social Sciences collections, contact the Enquiry team at Social-sciences@bl.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7894 from 10.00 - 20.00 Mon- Thurs or 10.00 - 17.00 Friday.
Current activities
British Library Content Strategy
We have refined our Content Strategy (i.e what we collect now and in future). Please see the content strategy pages on our website. These pages are organised by subject. Please remember that different aspects of a research theme may be described under more than one subject. A subject will also cover a variety of research themes, so even though your topic may not be specifically listed, it will likely be found under one of our headings.
If you have comments on the Library's content strategy, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Ian Cooke
Lead Content Specialist - International and Political Studies
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7676
E-mail: DevelopmentStudiesContent@bl.uk
