National Museum of the Philippines Library

national museum of the philippines library
National Museum of the Philippines Library

National Museum of the Philippines Library

Hidden near the back of the first floor of The National Museum of Anthropology is a small room filled with shelves of books. This is The National Museum Library and is accessible to casual or serious researchers. I will admit that their selection is not as significant as other libraries, but what they do have is copies of extremely hard-to-find monographs written for and published by The National Museum of the Philippines. This includes Robert Fox’s study on the Tagbanuwa, Jocano’s Folk Medicine, Peralta’s work on the Tau’t Batu, work from the Bolinao burial site, and many more.

I had some incredible one of one times with the librarian and was surprised to learn that other libraries may still request copies of hard-to-find monographs from the 70s and 80s through an official letter of request or exchange! The NMP Library no longer sells its stock to the public.

Well worth a visit if you are at the museum, or check out what they carry online. Please note they are still in the process of updating their online catalog.

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