News from the Library

The LHC Library to be merged with the Central Library.

Not everyone knows that CERN Scientific Information Service currently counts three physical libraries on site. The Central Library is located in Building 52 and there are two satellite libraries located respectively in building 30 (the LHC Library) and in building 864 on Prévessin site (the SPS Library). Moreover, the Legal Service Library is located in Building 60.

In the past, there have been at CERN up to 6 satellite libraries; they were essential at a time when information was only in paper form and having multiple copies of documents located in several places at CERN was useful to facilitate scientific research. Today, this need is less critical as most of our resources are online. That is why, following a SIPB (Scientific Information Policy Board) decision, the collections of the LHC Library will be merged this summer with the Central collection. This reorganization and centralization of resources will improve loan services. The SPS library, located on the Prévessin site remains open.

However, although the number of satellite libraries is decreasing, Central
Library still has a promising future. It is visited by many users,
night and day and all year long, and visits increase significantly
during summer. So even if the Library is becoming more virtual, it remains a keyphysical space for research at CERN.

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If you have suggestions for improving Library services or new acquisitions for the collections, please contact Jens.Vigen@cern.ch.

by CERN Library