The ICS maintains one of the largest privately owned Cambrian research libraries in the world. The collection includes a large number of rare books, unpublished dissertations. and scientific papers including paleontological and stratigraphic works published in Russia and China. The ICS Research Library was compiled by A. R. (Pete) Palmer during the course of his career. In 2006 the library was transferred to its current location in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, where it continues to grow. Since 2006, the ICS Research Library has almost doubled in size with the generous donations of the personal libraries of Michael Taylor (in 2008, courtesy of Julia Taylor) and George Theokritoff (in 2014).

Replica Collection

The ICS Replica Collection includes latex replicas of almost 4,000 Cambrian trilobites from around the world, including high-quality casts of more than 2,500 type specimens. The holdings of the ICS Replica Collection have been cataloged in a fully searchable digital database that includes systematic, stratigraphic, and repository information for each specimen. Digital images of the replicas are being added to the catalog.

Stratigraphic Collections

The ICS Stratigraphic Collections include more than 1,000 stratigraphically constrained fossil collections from Cambrian localities around the world. Trilobites dominate the collections, but other elements of Cambrian faunas are also represented (including early echinoderms, brachiopods, sponges, archaeocyathans, molluscs, small shelly fossils, and soft-bodied organisms). Locality data, stratigraphic data, and a faunal list for each collection have been cataloged in a fully searchable digital database.

Synonymy Records

The ICS holds and maintains a fully searchable digital database of synonymy and occurrence data for more than 19,000 Cambrian trilobite species, genera, subfamilies and families, including taxa in open nomenclature.

Computing

The ICS Library contains both Macintosh and PC desktop computers, a scanner, and a printer.

Lab Equipment

The ICS Collections room contains workspace for several researchers. Lab equipment available for use includes a stereomicroscope, fume hoods, and fossil preparation tools.