The Gilchrist Library is a governmental marine research information centre that supports and complements the research activities at the Marine and Coastal Management branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The library emerged as a marine research information centre as a result of the research activities undertaken by marine researchers in South Afr a hundred years ago.
	It was named after Dr J. F. Gilchrist who was the first marine biologist who pioneered the Cape Coastal waters and whose research findings evoked a significant interest in the marine life of South Africa. A library became the logical location for information of such a special nature to support the Sea Fisheries Research Institute (SFRI) at the time

.