The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau copies archives, manuscripts and rare printed material relating to the Pacific Islands. The aim of the Bureau is to help with the long-term preservation of the documentary heritage of the Pacific Islands and to make it accessible.

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau microfilm collection is the most extensive collection of non-government primary documentation on the Pacific Islands available to researchers.

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau is an archive of the most extensive collection of non-government primary documentation on the Pacific Islands.  The archive includes over 4,000 rolls of microfilm and related published indexes.

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau copies records and documents which are at risk of loss or destruction or are difficult to access, including:

• letters, diaries, notebooks;
• genealogies and other personal or family records;
• unpublished novels, stories, plays, poems, songs, music and drawings;
• grammars, vocabularies and dictionaries;
• mission and church records;
• plantation, mining, trading, shipping and other business records, including cooperatives;
• papers of political parties, trade unions, environmental organisations, women’s groups, youth groups, community associations and NGOs;
• papers of Pacific regional organisations;
• scientific, technical and medical papers;
• newspapers, newsletters and other serials

The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau welcomes –

• reference enquiries on sources for Pacific material;
• suggestions for copying projects, particularly when the material is in danger of loss or destruction;
• orders for microfilms, digital reproductions and publications; and
• enquiries about membership possibilities.