ASF Library

Welcome to the ASF Library

12th October 2026 - Please note the catalogue is still offline while upgrades to both the
operating system and the catalogue software are taking place.

NEW ISSUES RECEIVED

MSS Quarterly Newsletter Winter 2026 - ASF member login required
ASF Cave Cricket Vol.5 No.3 Sept 2026 - open access
ISS Newsletter July 2026 - ASF member login required
STC SpeleoSpiel 470 May-June 2026 - open access
Sopra e sotto il Carso No.07 July 2026 (not linked yet)
ISS Newsletter - Vol.32 No.02 July 2026 - ASF member login required
NC Troglodyte Vol.36 No.01 Jun 2026 - ASF member login required
JSSS Vol.70 No.07 July 2026 (not linked yet)
STC SpeleoSpiel 470 - open access
Sopra e sotto il Carso No.06 June 2026 (not linked yet)
JSSS Vol.70 No.06 June 2026 (not linked yet)
MSS 2026 No.2 Autumn - ASF member login required
Sopra e sotto il Carso No.05 May 2026 (not linked yet)
Descent 310 (hardcopy)
SRCC Speleopod 98 - ASF member login required
KSS Trog- Vol.60 No.04 Mar-Apr-May-be 2026 - ASF member login required
Descent 309 (hardcopy)
STC SpeleoSpiel 469 - open access
JSSS Vol.70 No.05 May 2026 (not linked yet)
Caves Australia 236 - password required (not library password)
ISS Newsletter April 2026 - ASF member login required
JSSS Vol.70 No.04 April 2026 (not linked yet)
JSSS Vol.70 No.03 March 2026 (not linked yet)
Sopra e sotto il Carso No.04 April 2026 (not linked yet)
Die Hohle (Austria) 2025 Heft 1-4 (hardcopy)
Cave and Karst Science Vol.52 No.3 December 2025 (hardcopy)

New reference book for the Library

Miners Flam Lamp Book

The ASF Library has purchased a second-hand copy of "The Miner's Flame Light Book", which happens to be in excellent codition. Many cavers fondly remember their carbide lights and the ASF Library Museum is starting to build a collection thanks to generous donations. This book tells the story of the history of these lights from all over the world. Thanks to Ross Ellis for drawing our attention to this fantastic resource.

Introducing the ASF Library

The Australian Speleological Federation Inc. maintains an extensive collection of caving and caving related literature, as well as being the repository for the Federation's Archives. The collection includes books, journals and magazines, club journals and publications, maps, posters, artwork, postcards, photographs and memorabilia. The Library is also developing a museum which holds objects of historical interest to caving and speleology.

The physical contents of the ASF Library and much of the museum collection are held at North Wyong NSW. Access to the Library is available to all ASF club members on request to the Librarian or a member of the ASF Executive. The resources of the Library exist to be used and everything except archive, reference and rare material is available for loan. Due to the ASF having member clubs all over Australia, an effort is being made to provide as much electronic access to the Library holdings as possible, and the Library would like to thank Rod OBrien from the Sydney University Speleological Society (SUSS) for donating an enormous amount of digital material to the ASF. The Koha server is maintained by Mike Lake. Many, many thanks are due to David Connard for coding ASF member access to member-only material. Links can be found in catalogue entries where an item is available to view online. Some material will only be available to ASF members and you will need to log in to access this online. The current ASF Librarian is Cathi Humphrey-Hood.

The "About" section of this wesbite has more details about accessing material. If you have any questions about the Library, please contact the Librarian at asf.caves.library@gmail.com

Dirk Stoffels from CSS has built a multimedia index to help with finding DVD, video and photograph holdings while cataloguing is taking place:

CDAA Guidelines now in ASF Library

CDAA Guidelines Cover

The ASF Library would like to thank the Cave Diving Association of Australia for making the back issues of its journal "Guidelines" available to catalogue and access through the ASF Library. Thanks also to Rod OBrien who re-scanned a large number of issues where the text was not clear. While not affiliated with the ASF, back issues of the CDAA Guidelines can be found on the Society Pubs page, or directly from here. Or search for "Guidelines" or "CDAA in the Library catalogue.

ASF Youtube Channel

The ASF finally has a Youtube Channel - "Aust Speleo Fed"

YoutubePage

Things are slowly going up to the site as it does take time to upload them, but please subscribe to the channel! We have a lot more to upload, including cave diving videos and more old news segments. If someone has time and is willing to help out, we'd love a few extra people to help get these old (and some new) videos onto the site.

This channel exists to preserve film and video media where it relates to karst and caves in Australia. It is not intended to be an entertainment channel, however some of the archival footage we have is very interesting! The Sellicks Hill Quarry story, told through news segments and put together by Grant Gartrell, is a real eye-opener.

The channel is aimed at media about karst, caves and caving, exploration, discovery, research and conservation - if you have something you would like us to put up on the channel, please contact the Librarian.

ASF Members Access to Library Files

If you are a member of an ASF affiliated club (or an individual ASF member), you can now access files directly from the Library catalogue. If you look something up in the catalogue and it says "ASF Library holdings (login required), you can now click on the link and it will take you to the membership database to log in (if you don't have a token, use the "Click here to retrieve your login" link to get your token (your token can be reused, so please keep it secure)). You can login via the admin section if you have been set up to do that for your club.

membership db screenshot

If you have a username and password to AWS you can of course still use that to log directly into AWS and look at files in our AWS buckets.

Thank you so much David Connard for getting this to work!

Australian Caves and Karst Systems

Aust Caves and Karst 2023

Edited by ASF members Dr Sue White, John Webb and Garry K. Smith and published by SpringerLink in 2023, this is the most comprehensive book on the caves and karst areas of Australia published to date. The ASF Library has an e-copy of the book. ASF members with an AWS login can now access the book by logging into the AWS Console and navigating to the folder: st2.asflib.net>BKS>SPRNGR>CKSW. The catalogue entry is here.

You can also login to view this via the membership database.