The SSA library started at the Association’s inception in 1977. At the beginning the use of the library was restricted to the members of the SSA. Today it is open to the general public as a reference library on humanities and social sciences. In 1992, its collection was categorized into three main components as the Sri Lankan collection, the gender collection and the general collection. Recently it also added another category – the Tamil collection.

The Sri Lankan collection consists of books on as well as pamphlets covering a wide range of subjects – history, economy, politics, culture, language, religion, ethnic relations, sociology, and anthropology. The gender collection includes rare and well known works written under the subject. The general collection consists of works categorized under subjects such as peace, conflict studies and ethnic studies. Our journals collection includes the back issues of American Sociological Review, Duke Law Journal, Economic and Political Weekly, Economic Review, International Feminist Journal of politics, Journal of Social History, International Journal of Legal Information, Journal of Global Issues, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Lines Magazine, Mediterranean Quarterly, Monthly Review, Pravada, Polity, Social Scientist, Tamil Times, Lanka Guardian, The American Historical Review, The Journal of Asian Studies and The Journal of World History.

The latest addition to the SSA library is the books donated by the Duke University. This collection is made up of works in the subject areas such as cultural studies, history, and political theory.

The library is open from Monday to Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. The membership fees are as follows.

Undergraduates – free of charge Local graduates and scholars – Rs. 50 per day Foreigners - Rs.100 per day

Membership fees exclude photocopy charges.

For further information contact Rohana Wasantha – Library Documentation Officer.