It is as a result of this on-going external context that the Society's Library has grown considerably in the interim until, in 1993, the Collections were permanently housed in their present location, where they have continued to grow at an alarming rate, when considering that there is only a finite amount of shelving space.

LOCATION :
The Library Facility is located in Plymouth City Centre within a low-rise residential block. Car parking in the vicinity is very poor before 1800 hrs each day and visitors should seek to park in a local car park or travel in by public transport. We are currently attempting to obtain our own car parking space. The address of the Library Facility is as given for the Society's Office on the Homepage.

REFERENCE FACILITY : 
The Library Facility is privately owned and managed by the Society and primarily serves the requirements of its United Kingdom and Foreign Membership Sections and provides a technical reference base underpinning the Society's workload and projects.
However, within the framework of Article 2. of its Constitution ("The Aims of the Society"), the Society can and regularly does help, assist or support non-members who are engaged upon, or who have a keen interest in karst research or study, by granting access to the Reference Library Facility and limited use of its support services. Details of specific library-user services and user-eligibility are given below.

This most essential research-resource is one that the Society takes great care to generously fund on an annual basis. As and when new reference titles are published, funds are allocated immediately for their purchase. There is also constant vigilance on the "second-hand" books market for the occasional availability of unstocked "back issues" of karst or speleo-related Serials to fill the many small gaps in publication-runs within the Society's current Collections.

The Society's Library does not provide a "loan facility" with the result that we do not have to separate the more irreplaceable historical items from the modern items, which would normally be the case in a traditional  lending-library facility. Such historical items would normally be placed into an Archive.
The Society's Archive, however, serves a different purpose and more details about this Facility can be found on the dedicated Archives Webpage, a Link to which can be found at the bottom of this page.

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS : 
The Library is essentially a specialist information reference resource comprising 2 main sections and several subsidiary sections:-

Section :...KARST- & SPELEO-RELATED SERIALS (Periodicals),..containing present (active) and past (inactive) Titles from U.K. and International sources published on a regular basis. The range of stocked Titles spans most types of relevant publications from caving club journals to institutional annuals, all of karst and cave relevance. Please note that this Section does not contain acquisitions which are individual photocopies, separata or offcuts of Articles from Serial Journals. Storage or shelving of the Items within the Library is arranged in alphabetical order of the Serials Titles, as indicated in the Catalogue.
The Catalogue of this Collection is currently available on-line as an MS Word document by following the Link given opposite in the left-side column.

Section :...KARST- & SPELEO-RELATED NON-SERIALS,..containing karst and cave-relevant material, obtained from UK and International sources, published in a range of formats from leaflets, booklets and photo-slide sets, to books, magazines, newspaper articles, videos, super 8mm cine films, audio-tapes and various digital formats. Please note that this Section also contains acquisitions which are individual photocopies, separata or offcuts of Articles taken from Serial Journals and which are Catalogued by the Title of the Article.
Storage or shelving of the Items within the Library is broadly arranged by Subject Order, as indicated in the Catalogue and is as follows :- Karstography (The UK).; Karstography (Rest of the World); Karstology (General); Karst Geology & Mineralogy; Karst Geomorphology & Morphogenetics; Karst Hydrology & Hydrogeology; Speleography (Specific Caves); Speleography (General); Speleo Vertebrate-palaeontology & Archaeology; Speleology (General); Speleo-biology; Speleo-therapy; Cave Diving; Cave Rescue; Caving (Techniques, Sport, Biographies, Ephemera) and contains a shelf for "Oversize Items".
This Section also has a separate Map Rack on which are stored Cave Maps.
The Library and Archives also retain any Newscuttings that are relevant to Caves, Caving or Speleology and which have been published in the local, national or international daily / weekend newspapers & associated supplements. If of local interest or relevance, these are usually lodged within the appropriate Archive Document File. If such material is of national or international significance, these will usually be catalogued as acquisitions and entered into the Library Catalogue. 

The Catalogues of this Collection are currently available on-line as 4 separate MS Word Documents,.viewable by following the Link given opposite in the left-side column.

Section :...Non Karst-related Technical Section, giving generalised reference-support in respect of geology, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, archaeology, anthropology, palaeontology, semantics and languages.

A sub-Section on Metalliferous Mines and Mining,.mostly of the metalliferous mining area of the English Westcountry, heads a further Section of publications unrelated to the Karst- or Speleo-sciences. The small Mines and Mining Collection of books was begun in 1978 and ceased any further expansion in 1981., when the Society simultaneously ceased both its active Mines Projects at Dolcoath Mine, (Camborne, Cornwall) and at Wheal Emily Mine, (Knighton in south west Devon) and resolved not to spend any more funds on this Section of its Library Collection. It has been regarded by some as being short-sighted in our not having completed the acquisition of certain sets of serialised books on Mines and Mining. However, the Ruling stands and no further Mines or Mining publications have been bought since 1981.
The Catalogue of this Collection is currently available on-line as a single MS Word Document by following the Link given opposite in the left-side column.

Further sub-Sections compiles both the Society's considerable..Karst- and Speleo-related Maps, Plans and Surveys Collection..and the Non Karst- and Speleo-related Maps, Plans and Surveys Collection.
These two individual Catalogues further list their contents by Item Type, and includes geological, hydrogeological, city/town/region maps, as well as cave surveys, mine surveys, etc.

A further sub-Section compiles the Society's considerable.Karst- and Speleo-related Poster Collection,..examples of which are always on display in the Library & Archives Facility.

The Catalogue of the Society's Archives Collection is currently at an advanced stage of construction and is now viewable by Members and other Authorized Users. It will not be available for viewing on the Public Access Pages.
The Catalogue of the remaining supportive Non-Karst Technical Collection is not currently under construction.
Additionally, cataloguing of the Society's Maps Collections and Poster Collections is now in progress. 

A substantial proportion of the total Library Stock represents publications acquired from many countries in Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
We recommend that the Society's Library Guide to Languages be consulted to check how the Catalogues are compiled in respect of the use of different Languages and Alphabets.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICES and ACCESS : 

Standard unrestricted access to the Library Stock :..This is offered free of charge to all Members every day of the year for reference purposes only, by personal callers.
[NB.There is no loan facility.]

Restricted Access to the Library Stock :  This has been made available in the past to bona-fide non-Members by previous arrangement and will continue until otherwise decided upon by the Society. There is now a charge levied on this Service.
[NB.There is no loan facility.]

Standard access to the Archive Stock :  This is provided free of charge to Members only.
[NB.There is no loan facility.]

Publications Procurement Programme (PPP) :...This Programme is one of the on-going internal processes undertaken on a daily basis by the Society's Reference Library. This Programme is the principal route for the Membership's direct investment in the Library Stock and is reflected as such in the annual Financial Statement, (available in the Members' Section of this Website). Effectively, its 3 primary aims are to source and procure publications for the Karst and Speleo Publications Collections, both to fill gaps in runs of publications in the Serials Collection and also to procure those publications previously identified as being necessary for acquisition. Its purpose is also to ensure and maintain the acquisition of regular publication subscriptions.
A further and more secondary aim of the Programme is to facilitate ad hoc requests by Members for their own private purchases of publications. This is operated under the Discount Literature Purchase Scheme for Members, as further detailed below.
Financially, the Publications Procurement Programme operates in two ways:-

i)   by direct receipt of actual publication donations into the stock, or 
ii)  by specific or targetted donations for the purchase of a particular publication. Not reflected in the annual Financial Statement is the annually large number of publication donations received from our colleagues abroad.

Due to the extremely high cost of specialist books, the PPP has necessitated the establishment of the Society's own routes into book purchasing, whereby we can obtain our specialist book requirements at the cheapest prices.
-  In respect of the PPP acquisitions list for gap-filling missing Issues from the Karst- and Speleo-related Serials Collection, these can be deduced by default when viewing the pages of the Serials Catalogue entries.
-  In respect of the PPP for the Karst- and Speleo-related Non-Serials Collections, the appropriate Link opposite in the left-side column will open an MS Word document detailing the current list of publications sought by the Society.
Additionally, the Society continues to benefit from private Bequests.

Discount Literature Purchase Scheme for Members :...Members can benefit directly from the PPP in being able to order copies of individual Titles for their own use, often at a 10% - 15% discount through the Society's Purchasing Accounts or through benefits associated with the Society's Institutional Memberships, where discounts have ranged from 10% - 60%.

In-house Stock Literature / Information Search & Retrieval :...Members may ask for specified information to be sourced from within the Society's own Library Stock. Retrieved information may be photocopied and forwarded to the enquirer by post.

National / International Inter-Library Loan Service :...In support of particular enquiries for information relating to the Society's UK or foreign-based Projects, it may be necessary to use the official Inter-Library Loan System operated by the UK Public Library Service through the British Library, to source and obtain information. The use of this Service incurs a fee and will be paid for, initially, by the Society. This Service is available at cost to Members and Project Research Assistants.
The Inter-Library Loan System, as accessed through the Plymouth Central Library, has been fraught with unacceptably long delays. After a particularly bad incident with the Plymouth Central Library in Dec 2008 spanning a period of 11 weeks into 2009, we have now had to review our use of the Inter-Library Loan Service.
The review concluded with the decision to operate our own Inter-Library Loan Applications direct with the British Library, thus circumventing the dysfunctional services of the Plymouth Central Library altogether. Our Application to the British Library has been successful and we are now operating our own system as and when required.

National / International Library and Archive Search Service :...In support of particular enquiries for information relating to the Society's UK or foreign-based Projects, it may be necessary for us to directly source and obtain information stored in a Private Library or Archive. Information search and retrieval Services may incur a fee at source and additionally, copying of information, if permitted, may also attract a fee. All such costs are borne by the Society.
This Service is available to Members and Project Research Assistants.

ACADEMIC SERVICES :
Special Language Translations Service :  This Special Service relies entirely upon the Society's own in-house capabilities. We do not purchase the Service either in part or in whole from external sources due to the extremely high costs levied by commercial translators. This Service is limited to the specific languages listed below and only in connection with the translation of material held by the Society.
The Service will provide translation of material held in the Library Stock published in Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, French, Hungarian, Slovak, Slovene and Serbian into the English Language.
Please note that this Service is not currently available to non-Members.

Systems Access Registry :  This internal resource, also known as SAR., is lodged within the Academic Services Facility and is the overall Control Procedure governing access to all the Society's facilities, documentation and activities.
Its existence is mainly encountered by non-Members, either directly or indirectly, by users of this Website, where Web-publishing, Webpage Editing, together with Information Access for browsers, is all strictly controlled by SAR.

MEDIA RESOURCES :
A range of media resources is available to Members within the Library and Archives Facilities. The Society maintains a variety of equipment to offer the ability of continuing access to a range of audio / visual information-storage formats that are no longer in vogue, such as the traditional audio-tape, VHS-C, Betamax, etc., in addition to all the modern digital variations. Additionally, we offer Members the use of digital technology formats offering information mass-storage, digital information-recording and digital information-copying / transfer.

Readership :...This accessible text will appeal to researchers new to the field and to the many professional ecologists and conservation practitioners requiring a concise but authoritative overview.
Its engaging style will also make it suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in cave and subterranean biology.
ISBN :  9780199219933..Book/Softbound......ISBN :  9780199219926...Book/Hardbound.
Dimensions :
Pages :  254 pp. Tables; Figures.
Imprint :  Oxford University Press.
Publication Date :  2009.
List Price :...£29.95p. (Softbound) / £60.00p. (Hardbound).
Publisher's PREFACE :
"Caves and other subterranean habitats with their often strange (even bizarre) inhabitants have long been objects of fascination, curiosity, and debate. The question of how such organisms have evolved, and the relative roles of natural selection and genetic drift, has engaged subterranean biologists for decades. Indeed, these studies continue to inform the more general question of adaptation and evolution.

However, interest in subterranean biology is not limited to questions of evolutionary biology. Both the distribution and the apparent ancient age of many subterranean species continue to be of significant interest to biogeographers. Subterranean ecosystems generally exhibit little or no primary productivity and, as "extreme" ecosystems, provide general insights into ecosystem function. Furthermore, the simplicity of subterranean communities relative to most surface-dwelling communities makes them useful model systems for the study of species interactions such as competition and predation, as well as more general principles of ecosystem function. The rarity of many cave species makes them of special interest in conservation biology.
The Biology of Caves and other Subterranean Habitats offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to cave ecology. Whilst there is an emphasis on the organisms that dominate this unique environment, conservation and management aspects are also considered. The book includes a global range of examples and case studies from both caves and non-cave subterranean habitats; it also provides a clear explanation of specialized terms used by speleologists."
 

Contents :
Chapter 1. The Subterranean Domain
Chapter 2. Sources of Energy in Subterranean Environments
Chapter 3. Survey of Subterranean Life
Chapter 4. Ecosystem Function
Chapter 5. Biotic Interactions and Community Structure
Chapter 6. Adaptations to Subterranean Life
Chapter 7. Colonization and Speciation in Subterranean Environments
Chapter 8. Geography of Subterranean Biodiversity
Chapter 9. Some Representative Subterranean Communities
Chapter 10. Conservation and Protection of Subterranean Habitats

Contributors :
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REVIEWS :
- in the Society's opinion ........ 
The book is certainly full of useful and interesting information, some of which we have found to be contentious or inaccurate. The book seriously tries to address karst ecosystem issues, which we certainly welcome.
We recommend this book as being of interest to speleobiologists and particularly to karst ecologists. The softbound version is well priced.

Readership :...Written for graduate students and academic researchers
ISBN :  13: 9780521535533..Book/Softbound......ISBN :  13: 9780521828468...Book/Hardbound.
Dimensions :
Pages :  291 pp. Tables; Figures.
Imprint :  Cambridge University Press.
Publication Date :  2009.
List Price :...£34.99p. (Softbound) / £75.00p. (Hardbound).
Publisher's REVIEW :
"Biospeleology, the study of organisms that live in caves, has a tremendous potential to inform many aspects of modern biology; yet this area of knowledge remains largely anchored in neo-Lamarckian views of the natural world in both its approaches and jargon.
Written for graduate students and academic researchers, this book provides a critical examination of current knowledge and ideas on cave biology, with emphasis on evolution, ecology, and conservation. Aldemaro Romero provides a historical analysis of ideas that have influenced biospeleology, discusses evolutionary phenomena in caves, from cave colonization to phenotypic and genotypic changes, and integrates concepts and knowledge from diverse biological viewpoints. He challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the biology of caves, and highlights urgent questions that should be addressed in order to get a better and more complete understanding of caves as ecosystems."

Contents :
Part 1. A Brief History of Cave Biology
Part 2. Cave Biodiversity
Part 3. The Evolutionary Biology of Cave Organisms
Part 4. The Ecology of Cave Organisms
Part 5. Cave Conservation and Management
Part 6. Epilogue

with Appendices, References and Index.

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REVIEWS :
- in the Society's opinion ........ 
A limited but very useful contribution to the subjects of speleobiology and cave conservation. The softbound version is well priced.