Library services

What is the service?

The Bank of Italy's collections are managed by two libraries: the Paolo Baffi Library, which specializes in banking, finance and economics, and the legal library, which specializes in banking and financial law. The total collection amounts to 210,000 volumes, 10,000 periodical publications on paper, and over 143,000 electronic resources.

You can:

• consult the catalogue and collections in the reading rooms;
• make photocopies, within the limits of copyright law;
• consult via Internet the Library catalogue and the catalogue of on-line resources;
• get remote bibliographical and documentary information services.

Who can use the library?

People with an interest in banking and financial studies: university professors, researchers, economists, legal scholars, scholars or researchers at other institutions, and university students.

How?

For access to the reading rooms, researchers must:

• apply by telephone, Monday to Friday, 10:00-12:00 and 14:30-16:30;
• present a valid ID document at the porter's lodge;
• fill out the admission form in the reading room:
• furnish, in the case of students, a letter of presentation from a university professor or an employee of the Bank of Italy; the letter is valid for one year.

PAOLO BAFFI READING ROOM

Address: Via Nazionale 91 - 00184 Rome

Hours

Monday-Friday, 8:00-13:00. Closed national holidays, the last three working days of May, 29 June, 14 August, 24 and 31 December.

Contacts

Tel.: + 39.06.47922404, for information and booking
e-mail: bibliotecabaffi@bancaditalia.it
Fax: +39.06.47922059

LAW READING ROOM

Address: Via Nazionale 91 - 00184 Rome

Hours

Monday-Friday, 9:00-12:30 and 14:00-16:00. Closed national holidays, the last three working days of May, 29 June, 14 August, 24 and 31 December.

Contacts

Tel.: + 39.06.47925386, for information and booking
e-mail: bibliotecagiuridica@bancaditalia.it
Fax: +39.06.47922397

Using the Library

The Paolo Baffi Library collections and Law Library collections can be searched online using the online catalogue. The Paolo Baffi Library has the following catalogues as well: periodicals catalogue; catalogue of electronic resources;  paper-based catalogue listing works acquired between 1894 and 1964. The periodicals catalogue can be consulted using the Catalogo nazionale dei periodici (ACNP) and contains a bibliography of most of the works owned by the Library; the catalogue of electronic resources contains electronic periodicals, working papers and databases.

Bibliographical and documentary information service

The service is available in the two reading rooms as well as externally. It is free of charge and can be accessed as follows:

• requests should be sent by e-mail or fax and must contain a contact telephone number and/or e-mail address and a postal address
  e-mail: bibliotecabaffi@bancaditalia.it
  fax +39 0647922059
  e-mail: bibliotecagiuridica@bancaditalia.it
  fax +39 0647922397
• results will be returned by e-mail or by post; postage will be paid by the Bank of Italy
• requests should specify the title of the research and any information that may be helpful in obtaining the best possible results, such as the language and the time period of interest

Photocopying service

The Paolo Baffi Library offers a photocopying service up to the limit set by copyright law (15% of each volume or series of periodicals, for personal use only).

Requests should be sent by e-mail (bibliotecabaffi.dd@bancaditalia.it) or fax (+39 06 4792 2059) and must contain a contact telephone number and/or e-mail address, as well as a postal address.
Charges, including postage by priority mail, are as follows:

• 1-20 photocopies € 5,00
• each additional photocopy € 0,20

Postage by other method or abroad will be charged to the user. Payment can be made by bank transfer, 'non transferable' cashier's cheque or 'non transferable' banker's draft, following the instructions that will be sent with the invoice.

The service is free of charge for other libraries on an exchange basis, within the limits authorised by copyright law. Requests should be sent as above. Libraries belonging to NILDE (Network Inter-Library Document Exchange) should send their requests through the website https://nilde.bo.cnr.it. The photocopies will be sent by fax or by post only at the Bank's expense. The photocopying service is also available in the reading rooms.

Contacts

• For general information, bibliographical research:
  bibliotecabaffi@bancaditalia.it
• For information on electronic resources:
  bibliotecaonline@bancaditalia.it
• To access documents owned by the Paolo Baffi Library:
  bibliotecabaffi.dd@bancaditalia.it
• For information, bibliographical research, electronic resources relating to the Law Library:
  bibliotecagiuridica@bancaditalia.it
• For information on the distribution of the Bank's publications:
  richieste.pubblicazioni@bancaditalia.it

Learn more

The Bank of Italy's Library consists of the Paolo Baffi Library, specialized in banking, finance and economics, and the 'Pietro De Vecchis' Law Library; it owns over 210,000 volumes, as well as approximately 10,000 printed periodicals and over 143,000 electronic resources. For further information on its history and holdings click here.

In 2018, the Paolo Baffi Library launched the series entitled 'The Paolo Baffi Library: Collections and Studies', which promotes its work through the publication of bibliographies, catalogues of holdings, guides and studies. All the studies published before 2018 can be read here.