The library group and reference group of the Institute of West Asia and Africa Studies (IWAAS) were established in the 1960s. In 1978, IWAAS resumed its works, and laid the foundation of the Reference Room simultaneously.

The reference room of IWAAS is responsible for managing books and other materials. There is a specific library with a collection of up to 20,000 books specialized in Middle East and African issues. In May 2012, the Library of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences established an international study branch, the library of IWAAS was merged into the branch library after that.

The reference room subscribes more than 300 kinds of academic periodicals in Chinese, English, French and Arabic. All the subscriptions are core journals related to Middle East and African studies in both domestic and abroad. The periodicals reading room also collects bound volumes amounted to a total of more than 2,000 back issues.

Document literature work also constitutes the duties of the reference room. Since 1978 the reference room has collected more than 2,000 volumes of news clippings with a range of contents and complete system. Based on nations, all of the clippings are classified and bended into volumes. The contents consist of the countries’ policy, economy, foreign affairs, military, etc. The perennial accumulated clippings have become an important component of our library’s datum. Reference Room has been publishing an annual released magazine entitled Big Events of West Asia and Africa (inside published) since 1982, and until now over 30 volumes have been published. The magazine mainly records big events happened each year in Middle East, African area and countries in the region. The contents involve various countries’ policy, economy, culture, military, foreign affairs,etc. This magazine has been drawing remarkable attentions from researchers in the field of Middle East and African studies.

The reference room takes the responsibility of the Institution’s informatization construction. In an age of informatization and internetization, the institution’s book informatization has witnessed a rapid development. The Library has been establishing the Database of West Asia and Africa Reference since 1999. Under the substantial supports from the leaders of IWAAS and after a 10-year-effort, the amount of the datum has almost reached a hundred of thousand, composed of the database of booklists, the database of bibliographies, full-text database and the database of historical events.

The Reference Room is in charge of IWAAS’ informatization and internetization construction, responsible for the maintenance of the institution’s website. After 3 times’ revision and upgrade, the website is now more abundant in contents and fully functional in background upload and information management.

The Reference Room has a staff of five, including 1 research fellow, 1 deputy research fellow, 1 librarian, 1 assistant librarian.

The Reference Room is currently directed by Cheng Hong and was directed by Ai Yigen, Chen Zhong, Ke Di, Xu Gengsheng, Chen Shuding, Wang Lishi and Liu Zhonghua respectively. Zhang Guoying, Lin Mingyang and Zhang Yuxi acted as deputy directors respectively.