The Sam Cohen Library opened on December 3, 1977. Thanks to the generous financial support from Mr. Cohen, it was decided to name the library in his honour. The library and archives house nearly 30,000 books, documents and maps, as well as over 30,000 historical photos and postcards. Thanks to the Rotary Club, the extensive Ferdinand Stich Africana collection was handed over to the society for safekeeping. The Sam Cohen Library also houses a unique collection of Namibian and (German) Southwest African newspapers as from October 1898. Some of these are already digitized to preserve them. Since the library opened, the extensive collection has been cataloged by volunteer and employed staff, further, the archive has been largely digitized. Part of the catalogue can be viewed here.

View Catalogue

Comprehensive information on many areas of science is available in the library and archive. The collection is continuously enlarged through book donations, not only from members, and new acquisitions, if finances allow. New arrivals are announced in our “Communications”.

The Sam Cohen Library is popular for genealogy research, as a number of publications found here, including local newspapers and address books, are very helpful.

Scientists and students from various disciplines will mostly find what they are looking for in the library, e.g. anthropology, archaeology, biographies, botany, geology, history of the country, encyclopaedias, reference works, travel reports, ornithology, dictionaries in various national languages, etc.

The Sam Cohen Library is a reference library. Books are not lent out, but the spacious reading hall invites you to do research here. For extensive research, research instructions and reproductions a fee is charged.

Some of the books from the Goethe Institute in Windhoek are available for loan to members of the Scientific Society Swakopmund.

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