The Reference Library provides a physical access point to information held by SWALIM, produced directly by the project, or obtained from partners as well as through efforts to reconstitute a water and land information repository for Somalia. Visitors to the library have access to a wide range of works, in both printed and electronic form, including project reports, water and land publications, maps, and project-produced tools and utilities.

The volumes in the Reference Library are precious, and their acquisition, in many cases is the result of time-consuming efforts to find them. For this reason, the Reference Library does not lend its hard-copy publications. On the other hand, SWALIM has digitised many of these resources and made it easy to access them online. Interested individuals and organisations can obtain electronic copies, both at the Reference Library through a dedicated terminal and through the website. To locate resources efficiently, SWALIM uses AGRIS as its cataloguing system and search engine.

To broaden physical access to its resources, SWALIM has set up libraries in its Liaison Offices in Hargeisa and Garowe with another library to be set up in a town yet to be determined in southern Somalia. While the printed collection in these libraries will not be as extensive, users will have full access to SWALIM's electronic resources through dedicated terminals.