The Wereldmuseum has branches in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Leiden; the libraries of all these museums can be consulted in Leiden. Because of the rich histories of these museums, the Wereldmuseum has a unique library collection on ethnography, anthropology, visual arts and material culture worldwide, which has been built since the early 19th century. The collections consists of over 78.000 books and about 1.000 magazines (of which about 60 are still ongoing). The collection is divided geographically and by subject. The list of subjects, regions/countries and their codes can be found here.
Aside from books and magazines, the library also has several special collections, which consist of pamphlets and brochures, internship reports, private archives, maps, auction catalogs and manuscripts. The library also offers access to the museum archives, where research can be conducted to the history of the different collections and institutions.