About the Library

Welcome to the Niven Library, South Africa's most comprehensive collection on Ornithology! The Niven Library is a reference library established, funded and managed by the Percy FitzPatrick Institute with support from the Zoology Department. Used primarily by staff and students of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, the Library is also open to all members of the University community, members of BirdLife SA, and members (including students) of other teaching and professional institutions.

The Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology was founded in 1959 to study the living birds of Africa by Mrs Cecily K Niven, daughter and only surviving child of Sir Percy FitzPatrick (1862-1931), a leading South African politician and entrepreneur. When the Percy FitzPatrick Institute first opened its doors it immediately started to build a library, an essential tool for any scientific enterprise. In 1981 the Library was formally named the Niven Library in honour of Jack and Cecily Niven and their family, who have done so much for the Institute and its library.

The strength of the Niven Library is in its holdings on the birds of Africa south of the Sahara. Many other books and periodicals on birds are also held so that African birds can be studied in the context of worldwide knowledge. BirdLife SA has played a vital role in the development of the Niven Library collection through past exchange agreements with other important ornithological institutions.

The Percy FitzPatrick Institute has also many other important research themes such as ecology, and conservation biology. With this in mind, the Niven Library obtained many books and periodicals dealing with these important subjects to meet the needs of their research staff and students. The involvement of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute in research at Marion Island, and also in the Southern Ocean generally, made the Niven Library an important centre for Antarctic and sub-Antarctic biological literature. The Niven Library also holds the UCT Zoology Department's library collection with holdings on general zoology, the animal kingdom and wildlife management.