Library
in English and Spanish
of the International Institute

The collection

The Library of the International Institute has more than 75.000 copies, nearly 1.000 films, 800 periodicals with 50 titles in progress, and daily Spanish and American press.

The origin of the collection is as old as the institutional project itself. Half of the collection is restricted access funds and available only for consultation in the room and the other is free access modern funds mostly available for home loan. A large part of the collection is on paper (books and serials) but it also includes multimedia materials in different formats, especially DVDs for movies and CDs for computers. The collection has mainly backgrounds for adults but also a children's and youth section in English.

In addition to the funds acquired by the Institute through purchase (highlighting the personal library of the historian and literary critic Melchor Fernández Almagro), another important means of acquisition throughout the history of the library has been occasional donations from Hispanists and intellectuals linked to the Institute. Among them, the collections of Fernando G. Vela (collaborator of Ortega y Gasset and secretary of La Revista de Occidente in its first stage) and Gonzalo R. Lafora (psychiatrist and disciple of Ramón y Cajal and Luis Simarro) stand out among them for their uniqueness.

Children's Library in English

The International Institute created its first children's and youth library in October 1956 for students from Colegio Estudio and the following year also for children from other schools in the area. The collection was expanded with the impulse of important donations such as that of Mr. Turnbull and Mrs. Wallace in the first years until reaching a fund of 2.000 volumes, in Spanish and English. A multitude of activities were organized in parallel and a total of 6.000 children between the ages of 6 and 16 made use of it. Due to changes in the orientation of the Library, it would disappear in 1.973, its funds being donated to other institutions.

Picking up the baton from the previous initiative and in support of the International Institute's North American Language and Culture Program in 2005, a new children's section exclusively in English was created within the Library's general collection to encourage a taste for reading and English language learning among children over 4 years of age and adolescents under 15.

To do this, it provides a collection made up of different materials and a space where you can learn to share and use the library. It also organizes different activities in English with which to promote interest in the language itself, books, oral narration, literature or cinema, stimulating their creativity and imagination.

The collection is made up of over 2.000 books, 150 movies, and a small selection of audiobooks and magazines. New acquisitions are periodically incorporated to keep it alive and updated.

More than 150 children and young people annually enjoy our children's and youth library among the students of the English courses of the International Institute and the children's "Friends of the library".

history of the library

The library of the International Institute has its origins in the beginnings of the institution at the end of the 8th century. For Alice Gordon Gulick, founder of the International Institute, the library was an essential part of her educational project as evidenced in the design of the Michelangelo 1906 or College Hall building. Since XNUMX it was organized as an independent entity and had a catalogue.

In 1928, as part of the collaboration agreement with the Residencia de Señoritas, the libraries of both institutions were merged, each contributing some 7.000 volumes. This library used the same facilities that the International Institute enjoyed since 1910, the first floor of College Hall.

That same year, the Institute began to offer library science courses, the first to be taught in Madrid on the subject and which would continue until 1979. The first female students of these courses founded the Libros association, which also published a magazine with the same Name.

Starting in 1930, with the appointment of Enriqueta Martín as director, the Library project was consolidated as a reference library in Madrid, contributing notably to the introduction of the Dewey system in Spain.

In the XNUMXs, the Association of Graduates of the International Institute organized a pioneering program of scholarships for the expansion of library training in universities in the United States.

Since the sixties the library began to grow significantly until it became the current extensive collection, specializing in Humanities and Social Sciences with books in both Spanish and English.