University Department - PIN's library of Prato

Presentation of the library

The library of the University Department of the City of Prato was opened in January 2002 in order to meet the information needs of users who carry out their work in this place (final year students, researchers, teachers) and for the students residing in Prato, enrolled at the University of Florence.

The library reflects in the content of the curriculum subjects that pertain to the teaching of the department, materials belonging to subject areas related to the reality of culture and work in Prato, where the textile industry and technology have always lived with a strong interest in theatre for art and iconography in its various aspects and articulated. To facilitate access to information to all its users, the library will acquire the basic documents for the degree programs offered by the University of Florence, for degree programs and master activated at the headquarters of Prato.

The five areas of specialization are: economy, technology, biomedicine, sociology and entertainment.

There is an annual increase of the library budget of about 2.000 volumes.

Of particular note are some funds from private donations including the Fund Becattini on industrial districts and the Fund Marzili on business economy. Another project of great interest is made up of “The Fund of the Renaissance”, which will collect the works circulated in Tuscany during the Renaissance and is entitled to Piero Cironi, Italian patriot, born in Prato in 1819.

Since 2002 the library has activated the service of media centre, with workstations equipped for watching and listening the VHS tapes, DVDs and music CDs.

The Medi@teca contains about a thousand of films, plays and operas. There is also a database of slides relating to the history of the Italian shows and the theatres.

The online catalogue on the website includes also the headlines of magazines published only in electronic format.

Resources

Books, periodicals, videotapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, electronic resources (databases, electronic journals in full text, indexes of journals and abstracts of articles), for a total of approximately 15.000 documents.
Internet stations: 28.

Reading places

50

Service

• Information and counseling for specialized literature;
• teaching of the library;
• local, interlibrary and university loans;
• home loan service for students with disability;
• electronic delivery of documents;
• service for the blind;
• full internet access via the fixed network and wi-fi.