The size of UK collections of material relating to Asia (there is no reliable separate figure for documents of Asian origin) is thought to be currently approximately around three million items:

• The British Library holding over 1,000,000 printed titles and 60,000 manuscripts in Asian languages

• SOAS holding approximately 1,000,000 titles in all languages relating to Asia

• Cambridge and Oxford each holding between 250,000 and 500,000 printed titles and major manuscript collections, along with several other collections containing well over 100,000 titles

• The Wellcome Institute Library alone holds some 12,000 manuscripts in 43 different languages.