Library

The Library of the Scuola Superiore di Catania was established in 2004 by Prof. Emanuele Rimini, first President of the Scuola, out of a small core of volumes, originally managed autonomously by the first students of the Scuola. At the end of 2013, the SSC Library contains more than 2600 volumes, ranging through all the fields of study and research represented within the Scuola. The SSC Library also collects the diploma and doctoral theses of its students. It possesses a collection of periodicals (Emeroteca), as well as a collection of DVDs for the SSC Cineforum or for individual use. A professor of the University coordinates the purchase of new items (books, DVDs, periodicals), and is responsible of the overall proceedings of the SSC Library.

The SSC Library has three reading rooms for consulting books or periodicals and for individual study, and a room where books are mainly collected. The SSC Library’s Catalogue is available online at http://biblioteca.ssc.unict.it, and it is based on the open source cataloguing software Koha (http://www.koha.org). The same catalogue offers thematic virtual shelves and allows to deal with loans online. The loan service is particularly addressed to students of the Scuola, former students and Alumni, their Tutors, and the personnel working at the Scuola.

Loans are managed by a group of Librarians, who are elected by all the students of the Scuola among resident students (from the second year onwards). The Librarians ensure (internal) loans on a volunteer basis, practically at any hour of the day, every weekday.

The SSC Library is a service of the Scuola mainly addressed to its students, in the diverse activities in which they are involved. Therefore, the SSC Library provides a complementary service to that offered by the libraries of the various University departments. In addition to the main textbooks in use in the various university courses attended by students of the Scuola, the SSC Library possesses a collection of reference books (ranging from literature, to science, law etc), as well as advanced texts also in relation to the internal courses of the Scuola. More specialized books can be requested on purpose by the students of the Scuola or their Tutors, for activities connected with their degree, diploma, or doctoral theses. The SSC Library responsible person coordinates the purchase of advanced or recent books, or books required for immediate use (e.g., for use with internal courses, preparation to official tests for foreign languages, evening meetings or seminars, theses, or DVDs for use within the SSC Cineforum). Special sections are dedicated to books in their original language.

The SSC Library also contains separate branches, located within the Laboratories active at the Scuola (Laboratory on Complex Systems, Laboratory on Human Rights).

Since 2004, Prof. G. G. N. Angilella serves as Responsible person of the SSC Library.