Physical Resources


Book Holdings

The Library's holdings consist of various thematic collections specialized in social sciences. The items are placed on open shelves by subject according to semantic classification (Dewey Decimal Classification). Lending policies vary according to the specific collections as indicated by the Discovery in the bibliographic record.

Monographs Room

Holds the core collection of the Library with over 20,000 books, the collection of Course Reserves, and general reference works.

Departmental rooms (Economics, Law, Political Science)

Provides on open shelves the new acquisitions of the Library on specific subjects.
In addition, some thematic collections are available in the Political Science Room:

  • Art Collection: the selection is available on the open shelf for internal consultation only, and provides the most interesting titles in art, architecture and design.
  • The Marcello Tita Collection: the collection is dedicated to the theme of friendship in memory of former Luiss student Marcello Tita, who passed away prematurely. The items, placed on open shelves, are available for internal consultation and on loan.
Special Collections

The Library holds some special collections on closed shelves and makes them available for internal consultation only.

Fondo Bachelet

In 1992, the Bachelet family donated the private law library of Vittorio Bachelet, one of Luiss University's first professors (1969-1974), to the Luiss Research Center on Public Administrations. The collection of 1,871 volumes is focused on administrative and public law.

Fondo Ungari

In 1999, part of the private library of Professor Paolo Ungari was donated to the Luiss Library. The collection of 6,681 volumes is specialized in the field of law, especially on human rights and the history of law, political history, and the history of institutions.

Fondo Pujia

In 2000, the Luiss Library was given Senator Francesco Pujia's private library. The collection is made up of 913 volumes on law, especially criminal law. An important section includes volumes and pamphlets on criminal (1930-31) and civil (1942) Fascist law.

Fondo Foschini

In 2022, the Library received part of Professor Marcello Foschini's library. Professor Foschini was Full Professor, Dean of the Law Department from 1988 to 2003, Deputy Rector from 2002 to 2005, and Rector of Luiss from June 16, 2005 to September 30, 2006. The collection of 1,300 books, published between 1941 e 2017, consists mainly of monographs on commercial law, corporate law and public law.

Fondo Pellicani

In 2022 the Library has received from his heirs the book collection owned by Luigi Luciano Pellicani, professor emeritus of the Luiss Guido Carli University.
The collection consists of about 6,500 volumes for the most part in the fields of sociology, political science and cultural anthropology which are the main disciplines of his academic research.

Luciano Luigi Pellicani was one of the protagonists of the Italian political and cultural debate.
Genesis of Capitalism and the Origins of Modernity has been defined a "classic" by the prestigious American journal Telos, and his studies on revolutionary mentality – I rivoluzionari di professione and Revolutionary Apocalypse: Ideological Roots of Terrorism – continue to affect the scientific production of national and international scholars.
Pellicani has always advocated the importance of the historical-sociological method by providing interesting contributions also in the field of sociology of culture with, among others, Rajput.
Also, he anticipated Huntington's thesis on the clash of civilizations in the book Jihad: the roots, defined as a standard reference work.
He was a theorist of a liberal, antiauthoritarian democratic socialism and his theses on market socialism and reform pluralism are common heritage. For the versatility and continuity of his contributions translated into most European languages, Pellicani has inspired generations of scholars in several fields of the social sciences.
Prof.ssa Michela C. Pellicani

The Pellicani special collection is currently in process.

Fondo Di Taranto

In 2023, the Library received as a gift from his heirs the book collection owned by Giuseppe Di Taranto, Professor of the Luiss Guido Carli University from 2001. The collection consists of about 900 books covering the fields of European economic policy, international financial crisis, history and economic development theory.

The Di Taranto special collection is currently in process.

Chinese Library

On June, 15th 2018, Luiss, Renmin University of China and The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China signed a Trilateral agreement for the creation of the Chinese Library.

Furnished with typical Chinese elements, the Chinese Library is located in the Political Science Room given the topics of the books already available in this room: History, Politics, Philosophy and International relations. The initiative has the objective of creating a cultural center for the promotion and development of multilateral relations.

More specifically, the goals are:

  1. To promote and facilitate intercultural exchange between China and Italy encouraging dialogue, spreading knowledge, and fostering integration between the Luiss Community and the Asian world.
  2. To create a physical place to promote the cultural connection between the two Countries.
  3. To develop a print and digital collection which will support both research and cultural activities.

The collections have been selected in line with the following topics: Culture and Art, Literature, Language, and Social Sciences. 
Users can also access Database of China Trial Cases.

Periodicals

The collection is located in the Periodicals Room of the Main Library.

Items are sorted alphabetically by title (almost 600 are current) and available on open shelves for internal consultation only in the Room to which they belong.

Periodicals are not loanable.

Remote storage

The first holdings of books and periodicals are kept in the Library’s remote storage which is accessible to the staff only.

On closed shelf the items have maintained the primary shelflist by inventory number as follows: monographs with shelflist “O”, “U” and numbers from 1 to 21277.

For further information visit the dedicated page.