Central Commission for the National Library

The Library’s main tasks are to organize, catalogue and reference the CAI’s collections.  The two librarians are involved in choosing purchases, according to the Commission’s general guidelines, and in reading catalogues and reviews and visiting bookshops and exhibitions; they also keep an inventory, catalogue, label and select works in need of re-binding or restoration and provide information to users in HQ and elsewhere.
 

In 2006 the inventory listed 552 publications, as well as numerous periodicals. Books purchased came either from specialized bookshops or directly from the publishers or from the antiques market. Visits were made to specialized fairs in Trento, Arolla nel Vallese and Verres and important volumes were bought at a Bloomsbury auction. New titles of particular value include: Collie, J. N. Climbing on the Himalaya and other Mountain Ranges; Cockburn, J. P. Swiss Scenery, 1820; Snoeck, C.H. Promenade aux Alpes, 1824; Mazuchelli, Nina E. The Indian Alps, 1876.
 

In 2006 the Library recorded 1,647 visitors; the considerable increase is due to educational activities and to special openings.
 

Works consulted in the Library numbered 3,924; books loaned, 292, works displayed during guided tours, 600.
 

Numerous schemes were devised to heighten awareness of the Library outside the CAI.
 

During the Turin Winter Olympics, the Library was opened for 17 extra hours, with the cooperation of the ‘Ragazzi del 2006’.
 

The first quarter of 2006 marked the first cycle of “Leggere le montagne” with 7 book presentations involving a total of 280 people. Special attention was paid to the choice of books to underline the role of cultural mediation.
 

The autumn cycle of recitals was a great success: readings with music, film shows and songs dedicated to Mila, Samivel, Buzzati and Rigoni Stern. The recitals, performed before an audience of 380 people, were organized by the National Library in partnership with Museomontagna, Turin’s Civic Libraries and the local section of the Edelweiss Choir, with an actress, a pianist and a harpist.
 

On the educational front, ministerial recognition of the CAI as a teaching body on the subject of mountains and mountaineering will open up further opportunities for educational activities and integration with school curricula.
 

Successful events also included the 8th BiblioCAI conference in Trento during the Filmfestival and the autumn seminar organized by the local Bergamo branch, at the Palamonti, where the author presented his volume on the SOIUSA, the new method of subdividing the Alps. The CAI National Library presented a series of projects dedicated to periodicals on mountains and mountaineering.
 

The www.bibliocai.it website published a census of section magazines, which is at once a bibliography and a cumulative catalogue of the libraries that took part in the update: the CAI National Library and branch libraries in Varallo, Pordenone and SEM, to which any other library can contribute by including its details in the database.
 

Users interested can access the catalogue of monographs of the CAI National Library, available at:  http://www.dba.it/cai/cai_biblio.htm.

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