Library
The library, which has been part of École des Mines since its earliest days, holds around 200,000 physical documents and over 200 million documents online. It focuses on access to electronic resources, the promotion of researchers’ publications, scientific outreach (European Heritage Days, Fête de la science, meetings, etc.) and the organisation of networks (Écoles des Mines, Sudoc, HAL, BNF, etc.).
Distributing scientific documentation
The library presents the catalogue of its own collections and all its services on its document portal.
The library is spread over four sites:
- Paris (science, engineering, economics and society)
- Fontainebleau (geosciences and environment)
- Evry (materials)
- Sophia-Antipolis (materials, energy, applied mathematics)
The library’s written heritage
Particular emphasis is placed on the heritage dimension of the collections, which are a real working tool for the community of researchers in the history of science and technology. Their value is enhanced by high-quality digitisation projects. The library is an associate centre of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Established in 1794, the library has a remarkable heritage in scientific fields. The reserve of old, rare and precious books contains more than 30,000 volumes, dating from the early 16th century to 1940. Today, the library’s holdings are mainly enriched by donations of printed documents or private archives related to the School, or by deposits of public archives produced by the School itself. More rarely, it may be augmented by the purchase of exceptional documents directly related to the history of the school, its research centres or the engineers of the Corps des Mines.
Support for the School’s teaching and research activities
The library also plays an important educational role, helping to train students, postgraduates, researchers and teachers to make the best use of the resources available to them (online subscriptions, catalogue and database research, Zotero software, etc.), as well as dealing with issues relating to scientific integrity, respect for copyright, plagiarism in the academic environment and the opening up of research data.
The Paris library is open to the general public, subject to registration. Its collections cover many of the School’s fields of study and research: energy and processes, mechanics, materials, economics, management, society, mathematics and systems, history of science, scientific culture, arts, humanities and languages. It is also possible to consult its heritage collection.
