Library

A documentation centre on cinema and photography among the most prestigious in Europe for its size and the variety of its collections. The over 54,000 monographs and hundreds of thousands of sets of magazines are part of the Museum's Library, a point of reference for the study of the history of cinema, archaeology of cinema and photography. The collection dedicated to Piedmontese photography, the large funds of Italian silent film magazines with about 80,000 pages and one of largest funds of cinema photo-strip stories in Italy. Significant donations offered by scholars and collectors have increased the collection: the biggest legacy is from Mario Gromo, a well-known writer and critic for the newspaper La Stampa, to whom the Library / Mediatheque is dedicated. The Library/ Mediatheque’s catalogue is available online. The Library Mediatheque has a very rich archive dedicated to early cinema and it also hosts the Centro Ricerche Cinema Muto Italiano Giovanni Pastrone.

 

Services

Reading Room

Access to the consultation of books and periodicals is free after taking out a membership card. Dictionaries, encyclopaedias, bibliographies, workstations for the use of laptops with power sockets and free Wi-Fi connection are available. There is a newspaper library: you can freely read the latest issues of dozens of Italian and foreign film magazines. Some fundamental filmographic and bibliographic databases dedicated to cinema can be accessed from some specific workstations.

Digital Library

The Italian silent cinema magazines and monographs can be consulted in a digital format (with a text search function).

Reproduction of documents

In the Reading Room, photocopy machines and scanners are available to the public. Photocopying and scanning are self-service (see prices).

Price List

Photographing documents with one’s own devices is authorised only in some specific cases (for example, for documents in poor conditions).
In order to publish a document or part of it, an authorisation request must be submitted to the Museum’s Director office, by filling in this form:

Request to publish

Authorisation for reproduction and exhibition

Document delivery

Libraries, professionals, students and off-site researchers may request bibliographical documentation on specific topics in accordance with the terms and conditions that will be communicated at the time of the request, which must to be sent to delsecco@museocinema.it.

Loan

Monographs and magazines are excluded from individual loans. For the loan of original materials for display purposes, in Italy and abroad, the procedures set by Archival Superintendence for Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta must be followed.

Exchanges with other libraries

The Library has set aside a portion of its volumes in double copy to the exchange with other interested libraries. Only publications relevant to the subject areas of the library will be considered for the exchange. A list of publications must be submitted to the library in order to choose materials which are not present in the library and are of actual interest. The exchange is carried out on the basis of a rough equivalence in terms of cultural and commercial value of the documents. 

Download the list

Contacts

Mario Gromo Library / Mediatheque
tel.  +39.011.8138.599
mail: biblioteca@museocinema.it