About the Library

From 1928 to the Present

The Biblioteca di Scienze della Terra was established in 1928 with the first acquisitions made by the Institute of Geology at the University, which at the time was housed within the Civic Museum of Natural History. It later expanded to include the holdings of the Institute of Palaeontology. From the outset, the library developed a distinctive bibliographic identity, characterised by the presence of both traditional monographs and periodicals, alongside an extensive collection of geological maps. Over the years, the collection continued to grow, despite being temporarily relocated to a villa in Brianza during the Second World War. Its expansion was facilitated by both acquisitions and numerous donations, including those from Professors E. Mariani and C. Airaghi and Mrs E. Henny Consonni, as well as through publication exchanges with numerous Italian and international research institutions. 

In 1957, the library moved to its current location at Via Mangiagalli 34, in a newly constructed building designed to house the Institutes of Geology and Palaeontology. 

The 1982 merger of the Institutes of Geology and Palaeontology with those of Mineralogy and Geophysics led to the formation of the Department of Earth Sciences. This restructuring, together with the donation of part of Professor Ardito Desio’s personal collection, laid the groundwork for the creation of the present-day Earth Sciences Library. 

Since 2001, the library has no longer been affiliated with the department but instead operates as a subject-specific library under the direct administration of the University Library Service. 

In 2009, the unification process was completed with the administrative merger of the Mineralogy Library and the Geophysics Book Collection, establishing the library as a comprehensive resource for the entire field of geosciences. 

Now named in honour of Professor Ardito Desio, who was director of the Institute of Geology for many years, the library houses the majority of its collections at Via Mangiagalli 34, where the main offices, public services, acquisitions and cataloguing departments, and the reading room are also located. The collections relating to mineralogy, petrology, petrography, and mineral deposits are physically housed at the former Mineralogy Library site in Via Botticelli 23.