The aim of the Library is not to cover any one discipline exhaustively but to bring as much and as diverse information as possible to bear on specific problems.
Readers have free access to the shelves.
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation has presented to the Library a complete microfiche edition of the 4,800 pre- 1800 volumes in the Cicognara collection, Vatican Library. The libraries of the Royal Numismatic Society and the British Numismatic Society are housed, and accessible, in the Institute. All periodical titles and all new monograph titles are catalogued by computer, using the Innopac library system, and the library catalogue is part of the School of Advanced Study union catalogue, accessible on terminals in the Reading Room, Photographic Collection, and on each floor of the Library. Some terminals in the Reading Room will also enable readers to consult the catalogues of other libraries. Most of our records are also part of the CURL database.