Biblioteca Bertoliana, Vicenza

The Biblioteca dei Ferrovieri was opened in 1979, on the ground floor of the Scuola Media "Dino Carta"; in 1993 it was moved to the current location, a building of 1926, former Scuola Elementare "Antonio Loschi", now Civic Center of District 7, located in the heart of the area built for railway state employees between 1907 and 1914, near the Arsenale.
The service provides:

• a reading room with 50 seats; a room for cultural activities with 28 seats.
• approximately 14.000 books, 22 periodicals with current subsrciption and 2 daily newspapers ("Il Giornale di Vicenza", "Il Corriere della sera"); - children's sections, with spaces and furnishings suitable also to younger readers; - a station for the Internet At the Biblioteca dei Ferrovieri it is possible to access to the "Documentation Centre on Latin America" (CDAL), with a wide collection of specialized magazines, fictions, poems and essays by Latin American authors, also in the original language, tourist guides, texts to learn history and geography of Latin America, works about current issues and audio visuals.
  The centre aims at offering to interested citizens informative materials on Latin American society and culture and at promoting initiatives to encourage the learning of Latin American culture (meetings, conferences, shows, exhibitions, etc.) and the Cooperation with Latin American countries, in collaboration with the Institutions, the Organizations and the Associations which have these purposes.
  Moreover, the Centre aims at becoming a landmark and a meeting-point for those Latin Americans who live in Vicenza.
  Indeed, it is on the initiative of a promoter Committee formed by Latin Americans (most of all Argntinian) that the Centre was ufficially established on June 1993.
  At the moment, the Centre has a collection of about 1.200 books, 4 periodicals with subscription, 50 video cassettes, 21 Cds of Latin American falk music.