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Biblioteca Elisava

Presentation

The Enric Bricall Library is one of the main support services for research and teaching, as well as for the training of future professionals in the design and engineering sectors. This service is open to the entire Elisava community and to specialists in the industry.

It was created in the 1988, behind the initiative of Enric Bricall, director of the school between 1986 and 1998. His aim was for the library to embrace the various areas of design. Over the years, the library has become an area of knowledge and reference for the Elisava community and the design industry.

Opening Times
Monday to Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Friday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Contact
ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering
La Rambla 30-32. 4th floor
08002 Barcelona
T.: 93 317 47 15
Mail: biblioteca@elisava.net

Spaces and equipment

The library Enric Bricall has two distinct areas. The welcome area is a place where you will find the latest acquisitions of the library, copies of the journals to which we subscribe, a small exhibition space with a sample of the documents that are part of the Reserve Fund Enric Bricall, and an area with computers and scanners.

The work area is a place of silent study. It consists of several illuminated tables with plugs for laptops.

WI-FI Coverage and sockets
All the library areas are covered by a wireless Internet connection network. It can be accessed with an ELISAVA username and password. All the tables in the library have sockets where laptops can be plugged in.

Access regulations

Access and consultation is free for the general public, although the services are exclusive for the Elisava community. Our library is governed by the same rules of any library you have been in, but, just in case, we refresh your memory:

  • Please maintain silence so as not to disturb other users.
  • No smoking, eating or drinking, except water, is permitted within the library area.
  • Please switch off mobile telephones.
  • No group work is permitted, nor can the tables be used for cutting, gluing, etc. The student room can be used for that purpose.
  • Free access is granted to all library services to all currently-enrolled students, teaching staff with a current contract, school staff and former students members of Elisava Alumni Association.
  • All users must have a school card to borrow materials or to take them out of the library area to make photocopies. Please go to the counter in these cases.
  • The borrowing service ends at 19:45, and the computers are switched off at 19:50.
  • Users are obliged to use the collection of documents properly to ensure they remain in good condition.

Collection

Physical and digital documentation collection

The Enric Bricall Library has a collection of more than 9,500 specialized physical documents in the fields of graphic design, product design, engineering in industrial design and architecture and interior design.

Books

The collection of books available to the library is focused on supporting the needs of the teaching field, as well as making available to the Elisava community the most outstanding news of the industry.

Periodicals

 

The library has subscriptions to more than 50 specialized magazines and journals. Here you can find the full list:

 

  • 032c
  • Adbusters
  • Apartamento
  • Archive
  • Auto & Design
  • Axis
  • Baseline
  • Cabana
  • Colors
  • Communication Arts
  • Computer Arts
  • Croquis
  • Damn
  • Design Issues (Print + Online)
  • Diseño de la Ciudad
  • Distrito Oficina
  • Domus
  • Elephant
  • Etapes
  • Exit
  • Experimenta
  • Eye
  • Form
  • Frame
  • Gráffica
  • Iconofacto
  • Inventario
  • Journal of Design History (Print + Online)
  • Kinfolk
  • MacGuffin
  • Make
  • Mix
  • Món d’Ahir
  • Monocle
  • Neo2
  • New Design
  • Novum
  • Office et Culture
  • On Diseño
  • Proyecto Contract
  • Renewable Matter
  • Scenario
  • Slanted
  • Temes de Disseny
  • Theknos
  • The Funambulist
  • The Plant
  • Touchpoint
  • Viewpoint
  • Viewpoint Colour
  • Visions by
  • Visual
  • Wired
  • Wallpaper
Audiovisual material

Besides the books and periodicals, the library has a collection of over 300 design-related documentary films.

Digital library

Additionally, the Elisava community has access to an extensive library in digital format. The electronic library consists of a collection of more than 39,000 electronic books in the fields of humanities, design, art, architecture, science, technology and engineering. Full texts can be downloaded online. Access must be made through the Virtual Campus of Elisava, following the link in the "Library Resources" section.

Enric Bricall special collection

The history of book design in the 20th century

The Enric Bricall Special Collection (FREB for its acronym in Catalan) is a collection of the Library of Elisava made of books that, for its typographical excellence, constitute a representation of the graphic avant-garde of the 20th century.

Find out more

The collection is the responsibility of Gloria Farré-Escofet —investigator in matters related to the history and culture of design—, with the collaboration of the librarian Andreu Jansà.

The Enric Bricall Special Collection consists of original antique editions and a reference library that interprets and documents the collected items.

Due to the nature of this material, it must be preserved under special conditions. That is why this fund is excluded from loan and is not freely available. To consult it, you must contact the library in advance. The documents that are part of this collection are identified in the catalog with the acronym FREB.

In the showcase of the library pieces that are part of this special collection are periodically exhibited.

Materials Narratives collection

Materials Narratives is a materials knowledge and interpretation platform aimed at researchers, teachers and companies. Based on experimentation and design through new materials, it has been researching for years how the materials in our environment can be understood in an integral way and from a social, cultural, sustainable and technological perspective. The different academic and research projects at an international level have been promoted through Elisava Research and from the different Elisava degrees and masters.

The Materials Narratives platform also offers services aimed at companies and organisations, accompanying them in training and innovation through materials, detecting and developing new opportunities through different collaboration formats such as: research projects, training capsules, development of own materials or the selection of commercial materials for different sectors – Material Boxes. 

Visiting hours are from Monday to Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you want to know more about Materials Narratives, send us an email at: research@elisava.net.

Services

Borrowings

The borrowing service enables you to borrow various documents from the library. This is an exclusive service for the ELISAVA community, and to use it you must have the ELISAVA student card.

Borrowing regulations
  • The card is personal and non-transferable.
  • Every user can borrow up to six documents at the same time.
  • Items can be borrowed for fourteen days.
  • Loans can be renewed as long as the return date has not expired or the document has been reserved by another user. The renewal can be done in person in the library, by phone at 933174715, by email (biblioteca@elisava.net) or through the library catalog by accessing My Account with your ID number both in the identification and password.
  • Users may reserve documents that are already borrowed. The library will notify users by email when these documents can be picked up. The pick-up period will be seven days.
  • Borrowed documents need to be treated with care. So that the service can operate effectively, we would like to remind you to be punctual when returning the documents.
  • The computer system will apply a two-day penalty during which no documents can be borrowed for every day the return of the documents out on loan is delayed.
  • Documents which are not returned within the established period will be requested by email, by telephone or by ordinary mail.
  • The following documents cannot be borrowed:
    • Some reference works: encyclopaedias, dictionaries, atlases, etc.
    • All the documents in the Enric Bricall Reserve Collection
    • The latest edition of every periodical
    • Documents which are in the new item display case
    • Final study projects
    • Documents temporarily excluded at the request of a tutor
    • Documents which the library decides should not leave the library

Interlibrary loan

Elisava is part of the Collective Catalog of the Universities of Catalonia (CCUC), through which you can borrow the vast majority of the documents available in them, so you can help fill in the information that is not in the ELISAVA's library.

Elisava is part of the Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàrias Catalanes. Through its collective catalog you can locate and apply for loan the vast majority of documents that are part of the collections of the universities of Catalonia. It contains more than 3,700,000 bibliographic records and gives access to more than 8,000,000 physical documents stored in more than 160 libraries. If you are interested in consulting a document from another university you can request it in an interlibrary loan. Make an on-site request at the desk of the Elisava's library or contact us at biblioteca@elisava.net.

Documentation Centre of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona.

Members of the Elisava community have access to the complementary services of the Documentation Center of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona.

Service details

 

In order to enjoy this service, you must identify yourself with your Elisava's card at the facilities of the Documentation Center of the Barcelona Design Museum. You will be able to access the consultation of trend books and colour guides (Nelly Rodi, Peclers, Carlin, Promostyl, WGSN, Pantone), specialized databases (DAAI Design and Arts Applied Index, The Vogue Archive, The Harper's Bazaar Archive, Berg Fashion Library) and digital magazines (Design and Culture, Costume, Textile History, Interiors, Dress, Fashion Theory, The Design Journal, etc.), as well as having a longer loan period.

Additionally, Elisava has the option to reserve the room for its exclusive use, and to carry out teaching activities related to restricted access documents (archives of companies, designers or institutions related to design, and/or trend books, color guides or the xiloteque).

Information Resources

Collective catalogs of interest

If you do not find what you need in the Enric Bricall Library catalog, the following catalogs may help:

  • CCUC (University Union Catalogue of Catalonia)
  • ALADÍ (Public libraries of Barcelona's province)
  • REBIUN (Spanish universities)
  • BEG (Specialised libraries of the Generalitat)
  • WorldCat (collective catalogue of libraries around the world)
Data bases with open access

The library proposes different databases of open access:

MaterFAD
It is the database of materials of the FAD. It allows you to search for materials according to different criteria and gives access to files with their technical characteristics. Access is free, but you have to register as users.

RECOLECTA
It is a platform that groups all the Spanish scientific repositories. It has open access to fulls texts.

OAIster
It is a platform that gathers digital resources of open access worldwide. Includes books, articles and digitized manuscripts, audio, video, photographs, statistical data, doctoral theses and research papers.

Europeana
The Europeana portal is a search engine for the digitized collections of museums, libraries and archives in Europe.

ccindex
It is an open access database of bibliographic references of specialised magazines in architecture, art, social sciences, cinema, design, cultural studies, philosophy, photography, literature and music. Access is free but you have to register as a user.

Specialised design databases

The members of the Elisava community have access to the complementary services of the Documentation Centre of the Museu del Disseny of Barcelona, ​​which includes the consultation of specialised databases, such as:

  • DAAI Design and ArtsAppliedIndex
  • The Vogue Archive
  • TheHarper'sBazaar Archive
  • BergFashion Library

The library offers tailor-made sessions for professors and user groups that have an interest in a specific topic or a specific resource. In order to serve users who cannot attend a face-to-face session or who prefer to follow their own learning process, the library offers references and quick guides for use:

Bibliographic reference managers

There are several managers that allow to maintain, organise and give shape to bibliographical references, as well as generate bibliographies in different styles of citation and incorporate them into text documents, or generate bibliographies to share. Some of these managers are:

How to create a bibliography