International multimedia library – peace, environment and development

Since 1982, when Centro Studi Sereno Regis (Sereno Regis Study Centre) was founded, the aim was to collect information material and documents on the topic of nonviolence. In recent years, this collection has grown and has been rearranged in a more systematic way in our library.

Currently, the library has 28??,000 volumes circa, some of the major specialized magazines and a video archive containing 1,300 VHSes, DVDs and CDs.

In particular, the library is specialized on environmental issues and on peace research. Key texts of nonviolence leaders (Mohandas Gandhi, Aldo Capitini, Lanza del Vasto, Danilo Dolci, Martin Luther King, Jean-Marie Muller, Vinoba Bhave, Gene Sharp, Johan Galtung, and others) are available at the library, including 100 volumes of Gandhi’s complete works. Beside these, a rich documentation is also available on subjects such as peace education, nonviolent conflict resolution, nonviolent popular resistance, analysis of 20th century wars and terroristic movements, energy issues, animal rights, alternative economy, relationship between economic growth and globalization.

More in detail, the library’s collection was classified into five relevant sections: “Peace and Nonviolence”, “War and Conflict”, “Environment and Ecology”, “Economy and Development”, “History and Geography”.

In collaboration with Regione Piemonte (regional administrative division of Piedmont) and thanks to the donation of private book funds, a forestry library – Biblioteca Forestale “Liria Pettineo” – was established. It intends to become the starting point for the spread of knowledge related to forests, natural engineering and other activities pertaining to natural environment, paying particular attention to Piedmont territory.

As for archival materials, which give evidence of nonviolent movements’ history and vitality, the classification and the cataloguing has been launched. Between 1999 and 2004, some professional archivists were entrusted with part of this job. They worked in the context of a project issued by Piedmont regional Arts and Culture Council aimed at reorganizing and promoting historical archives and associations’ archives.

The library is part of the regional information system on peace, cooperation and international solidarity named “Agorà Piemonte”. On this website, it is possible to search for books and visual material included in our study centre’s collection. However, the website is managed by Regione Piemonte and is still being updated.

Since August 2010, the whole catalogue of Sereno Regis library has been moved into the SBN, the National Library Service. The catalogue is accessible on the website Librinlinea of Regione Piemonte.

The library is also part of CoBiS, the Committee of Special and Specialistic Libraries of Turin.