The Lasallian Library was established by a decision of the 38th General Chapter of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1956 as a research tool of St. John Baptist de La Salle thought and tradition of the Institute. Throughout its history it has consistently played a harvesting function and developping the documentation to help the implementation of the training program of Lasallian investigators, and has gradually become a large library with about 80,000 volumes ancient and modern.
Through the digitilization of the documentary patrimony of the Institute the library is responding to the need of ensuing the preservation of l materials and also an openness to consultation through the provision of services, such as: bibliographic information, reproductions, private loan and interlibrary loan, protecting constantly this rare and precious heritage.
To answer this need of sharing and cooperating in the cataloging and management, the Library is now open to the public, it participates in the Register of Ecclesiastical Libraries and adheres to the Project CeiBIB a collective catalog of the Italian ecclesiastical libraries, The libary is also linked to the SBN the National Library Service) and shares its catalogueswith other libraries.
From 2014 this rich heritage has been made available to the public, who can use it entirely free of cahrge permitting documentation services for more refined searches.
Through agreements with the Universities “Roma La Sapienza” and “Roma Tre” the Lasallian Library welcomes every month students who intend to do training experience at a public library.