This selective bibliography of nearly 6,000 items concentrates on monographs published during the last fifty years, updating other major bibliographies on the Australasian and South Pacific region.

This book is inspired by the University of the South Pacific, the leading institution of higher education in the Pacific Islands region. Founded in 1968, USP has expanded the intellectual horizons of generations of students from its 12 member countries—Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu—and been responsible for the formation of a regional elite of educated Pacific Islanders who can be found in key positions in government and commerce across the region. At the same time, this book celebrates the collaboration of USP with The Australian National University in research, doctoral training, teaching and joint activities. Twelve of our 19 contributors gained their doctorates at ANU, most of them before or after being students and/or teaching staff at USP, and the remaining five embody the cross-fertilisation in teaching, research and consultancy of the two institutions. The contributions to this collection, with a few exceptions, are republications of key articles on the Pacific Islands by scholars with extensive experience and knowledge of the region.

"The South Pacific region, with its eighteen territorial administrations, is both vast and varied, and literature on it ranges widely from the accounts of the early explorers to modern technical studies in many branches of science. The first bibliographic task, as seen by the Commission, was a basic work essaying to list and classify existing bibliographies of this literature, and so serve as a starting point for enquirers wishing to know where information could be obtained on any aspect of Pacific affairs. The present bibliography is the outcome."--Inside cover.