Central Library of Bucharest

Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8-20.

The Central University Library was inaugurated on March 14th, 1885 as a royal gift for the students from Bucharest, under the name of “Carol I University Foundation”.

In 1948, by decree, Carol I University Foundation is dissolved as a private institution and the Central University Library C.I. Parhon from Bucharest is founded and it organizes its activity function of the needs of higher education which was restructured following the education reform.

In 1963, the library becomes also a national centre for facilitation with Romanian publications of the lectorates for language, literature and Romanian civilization from abroad.

Currently, The Central University Library of Bucharest is an integrated librarianship structure, consisting of a central encyclopaedic unit, 12 specialized branches of the library, functioning by the faculties of the University of Bucharest, two libraries of student hostels, a library branch within the Ministry of National Education and a library within the Museum of National History "Grigore Antipa".

The current organizational structure is based on Decree no. 83/1976 adapting to the level of the branches and the structural evolution of the University of Bucharest.

Administratively speaking, The Central University Library of Bucharest is a legal entity and it is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Research. The entire librarianship complex provides through its branches specialized services to the University of Bucharest and is, at the same time, accessible to all students, teachers, researchers from the capital city.

The activity of the branches is based on a close collaboration with the deanships of the faculties that approve the functioning programs, the structure of the collections, the services provided in accordance with the regulation of the libraries from the university.

The collections of the Central University Library of Bucharest totalize 2,063,103 registration units including a diversified documentary typology (books, serials, manuscripts, microcopies, audiovisual materials, other categories of collections).

The Central Unit Collection has an encyclopaedic structure and includes representative documents from all fields of Romanian and foreign knowledge.

The collections of the branch libraries by the faculties are specialized on the profile of the faculties and of the related fields.

The international exchange of publications occupies a special place in the development of the collections of publications of the Central University Library.

The activity of documentary information of the Central University Library of Bucharest is determined by the development of research in different fields of science and culture, of orientation and of scientific content of higher education.

The library develops magazine indexes, bibliographic guides, bibliographies on request. The Library issues annually the methodologic breviary “Information and formation” and the Central University Library brochure which is handed out to each student involved in the complex action known under the generic title "Library Days", specially organized for beginners.

In order to develop certain unitary activities, the library functions as a methodology, training and improvement centre in the librarianship domain, providing professional assistance and specialized guidance to other university libraries.

Professional training and improvement programs organized and developed at the level of the institution, pursue ways to improve the activity of all working departments in the library, their unitary development, knowing and acquiring the latest international achievements in the respective domain.

The library is actively engaged in the development and modernization of the library practice, in studying thoroughly the specific theoretical field, in promoting the performance in the field, in the national organization of the university librarianship movement.

The Central University Library of Bucharest is the first fully computerized university library in Romania. The process of computerization started in 1990 by the introduction in the CDS-ISIS of the documents registered in the library after 1990. Since 1994, a new integrated library system was used - VUBIS. Since 1995, The Central University Library has full and permanent access to the INTERNET and email. Through the World Wide Web, various sources of information- presentation pages of the various national and international institutions and organizations, bibliographic databases, etc can be accessed.

Since 1996, under a contract concluded with OCLC, The Central University Library offers its users, the possibility to access the First Search - OCLC service (Online Computer Library Center).

Computerization programs have been developed for the libraries of the Faculties of Physics, Law, Biology-Section of Botany, Geography, Geology- Geologic Engineering and Geophysics Department, whose materialization is in progress.

Fees:

Charge for Internet access: 15,000 lei / hour.
Photocopies cost 1,000 lei / page.
Address Boteanu Street, no. 1, Sector 1
Phone 313.16.25, 313.16.06
Email http://www.bcub.ro/