CIVICA Library

CIVICA institutions already open many collections to the public. These include:

• LSE Collections Highlights
• EUI Historical Archives of the European Union
• Sciences Po special collection
• Bocconi ASBOC Historical Archives

LSE Library collections have been built up over 120 years to provide the raw materials for research and scholarship at LSE and beyond and now consist of 1.2 million printed titles and over 2000 archive collections. Our collections are internationally recognised, and our ‘flagship’ collections are collections of national significance in relation to their subject matter (they focus on subjects of significant interest), their quality (they are extensive in coverage, cover their subjects in depth, and contain a significant quantity of rare or unique material) and their research value (they make a major contribution to the public understanding of a subject).

Our flagship collections are in six strands of British political and economic history from the late 19th century onwards:

• Women’s equality and rights
• LGBT+ equality and rights
• Peace and internationalismS
• Britain’s relationship with the EU
• Development of left-wing thought
• Poverty and welfare

Another flagship area is the history and development of social science in Britain, particularly focused on LSE and the contribution of its members to public debate and government policy. 

You can learn more about our flagship collections on our Collections Highlights webpage.

Going online in May 2021, the Sciences Po digital library is the first tool for disseminating our digitized resources, enabling the Sciences Po community and the general public to consult our digitized heritage.

Among 900 000 documents collected since the school was founded in 1872, some are unicas : unique documents that only we possess, obtained by preservation or through donations.

They are available for online consultation, free access on aspecial collection in our digital library.

Over more than 400 unique, free access digitized books, novels, periodicals on various themes especially political life in France and other European countries through their institutions, political parties, international relations and history since the French Revolution.

Among its vast archival holdings, the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) preserves tens of thousands of audio-visual items in its collections, comprising photographs, maps, posters, audio-recordings, videos, and more. At present, around 17,500 of these items are available for online browsing via the Archives’ multimedia portal,  which permits users to search the audio-visual holdings, view the result in a user-friendly display, access the archival metadata of each item, and visit the associated archival record for complete information on context and provenance. The number of items available on the platform regularly increases.

The HAEU is also the repository for several oral history programmes related to the history of European integration. Transcripts and /or recordings of these interviews are open for online consultation via the Historical Archives’ main database.

The EUI Library either digitised what was somehow already in the public domain or in agreement with copyright holders: 

• Agence Europe Bulletin Quotidien Europe 1953-1999 (French), and Europe Daily Bulletin 1979-1999 (English)
• EUI Working Papers (European University Institute, 1981 and 2000)
• EUI monographs
• European Trade Union Institute Studies
• Assembly Proceedings (Western European Union) 

In April 2014, the Historical Archives of Bocconi University were reunited in a new conservation room of the Bocconi Library, according to the national guidelines and requirements provided by the government superintendent office that oversees archival material. 

All the archival fonds preserved are related to the life of Bocconi University established in 1902 (Archivio storico Bocconi, Archivio fotografico Resti) or of individual companies (Archivio Brustio-La Rinascente), associations (CNMI, National Chamber of Italian Fashion), business personalities (Ugo Pisa, Giuseppe Luraghi) associated with Italian business history and linked to international relations. The oldest archives testify in particular to the development of economic exchanges between Tuscany and other Italian and European cities (Archivio Saminiati-Pazzi), allowing us to partially reconstruct the management of a sharecropping agricultural firm between the end of the 18th and the end of the 19th century (Archivio Artimino).

The papers collected are of various nature (letters, registers, photographs, typescripts) and occupy about 600 linear meters, with most ancient ones dating back to 1400.

All the photographs and an increasing number of papers have been digitized and are available on our ASBOC.

The full descriptions of the archival material are available also on Searchlib of Bocconi Library & Archives and the digitizations of selected photographs and documents are collected in the dedicated Library Digital Collections.