ARCHIVES FOR UFO RESEARCH

AFU

Book collection - reference and lending library

The AFU reference and lending library was the first 'basic' part of the AFU collection. It all started, in 1975, with a donation of some 225 books from Lennart Johansson, a Stockholm 'ufologist'.

At the end of 2010, our world-wide reference collection comprises more than 13.500 volumes representing about 9.500 different titles/editions/translations/documents/media. The current rate of expansion is more than 1.000 titles each year. Some 300 persons, societies, companies and institutions have contributed materials for the AFU library shelves.

It is our aim to preserve, in one collection, one, two or even three copies of each ufo-related title published, anywhere in the world. We are, of course very far from that goal. Any donation to make the collection more complete is welcome! It is our aim to preserve a very broad selection of ufo-related books, booklets, documents and other media. Everything from 'cultish' and religious (yet ufo-related) literature, via mainstream 'hard-evidence' 'ufology', over to the extremely skeptical side of the ufological belief spectrum.

In recent years, we have also received major collections related to other phenomena, such as parapsychology, psychological and religious phenomena, folklore, and areas of Fortean studies such as crypto zoology. We believe no other specialized ufo-centered collection anywhere in the world has the same international breadth and scope. This will be amplified by the recently donated Hilary Evans library of 8.000-9.000 book titles which we will start to catalogue early in 2011.

From the beginning, our book library was open for lending, in cases where we had two or more copies on file. This, however, only by post, and only to AFU supporters in Sweden. Due sharply increased postage rates, the library is now more of a reference library, where lone copies of books and documents are permanently preserved for the future with the intention that it should never leave our premises. About 2.500 titles are available in several copies and thus eligible for loans by post within Sweden or when visiting us. If you live in Sweden and have a Swedish citizenship you are welcome to contact as for details on how to borrow from us.

We are also collecting scanned documents and e-books which are integrated with our catalogue/inventory of physical books so that we may offer digital copies sent by e-mail whenever available to us. At present about 500 of the works in our book catalogue are available in digital formats.

A detailed Access database of the collection is maintained, and freely available for the asking. It includes ISBN numbers and a field to indicate the number of copies available at AFU for each edition of a title, to help plan future  acquisitions. In our database, and on the physical shelves, each new title is classified by one or more Ufocodes. Each theme, or sub-theme, has it's own code. Current Ufocodes can be viewed systematically and alphabetically from the Ufocode menu on our main-menu.

Two downloadable PDF catalogues (menu on the right) presents the entire AFU book library sorted alphabetically by author and title, and, systematically by Ufocode. The alphabetical listing has been changed to also include information about who was the first donor of each title.