The Library's holdings consist of c. 60,000 volumes. 600 current periodicals are taken. Specialisms include: Mediterranean archaeology, prehistory, ancient history and texts; the history of ancient religions; ecclesiastical and medieval history; Italian topography, history of art and architectural history, and the writings of travellers in Italy.

The open-shelf reference Library provides the bibliographic resources and services necessary to support the research activities of the BSR.  The Library aims to complement UK academic libraries through its holdings of local Italian publications and periodicals and welcomes all scholars, undergraduates and graduates, studying in any field relevant to its collections.

IMPORTANT NEWS!

Please read carefully

Readers' cards

Readers are required to take out a BSR Library Membership of € 30,00 per annum and should provide the following:

- letter of introduction from a university or academic institution

- passport-size photograph

- passport / document

[download Library Information]

[download New Readers form 1]

[download New Readers form 2]

All existing readers cards must be renewed 1 October 2009.

Temporary readers and Archive users will be issued with a one-month Membership Card at a cost of € 10,00.

Library Membership gives access to the Library until all the 28 desks available are occupied.

The income will be spent on new library acquisitions.

Photocopies
Readers can photocopy books in the Library using a magnetic card: Euro 1.5 for 10 photocopies, Euro 3 for 20 photocopies, Euro 4.5 for 30, Euro 7.5 for 50, Euro 15 for 100, or Euro 30 for 200 copies. Books larger than A3 size and earlier than 1800 cannot be photocopied; they can, however, be photographed by the reader using the copy-stand. The Library does not lend books or send photocopies.

The Library is a member of the URBS network of Roman research libraries. The on-line catalogue of the 12 member libraries is accessible through the Internet at www.reteurbs.org.

The challenge for the Library today is to complete the retrospective conversion of its catalogue. This entails transferring the information from the old card catalogue onto the URBS on-line joint catalogue. To date, the following sections are available on-line:

new acquisitions since 1992

periodicals (P)

part of the Rare Books collection relating to Italian topography

the archaeological section (100s)

the ancient history and texts section (200s)

the Italian history section (Medieval and Renaissance) (500s)

the Italian topography section (600s)

and the series section (S).

All funding for this work has to be found externally and sponsors for work already completed include the University of Reading, the British Library, the Jowett Copyright Trust and the Marc Fitch Fund.