THE CECs INAUGURATES A NEW GLACIOLOGY LIBRARY

The IGS Library of the Southern Hemisphere is available since February 2017, it’s located on the second floor of the new building of the Glaciology Laboratory of the Center for Scientific Studies, CECs.

In 2016, the Secretary General of the International Glaciological Society was looking for a new home for the IGS book collection, a valuable group of texts for scholars, students and the general public interested in glaciology, who now have access for teaching purposes or research.

The collection, which comprises almost 500 volumes published between the end of the 19th century and the present, covers a wide variety of interesting glaciological investigations carried out around the world, most of which do not have digital versions and are therefore unique publications of high historical value. Most are in English, French or German, along with several texts in Russian and Polish.

The CEC's Glaciology Lab offered to take care of the library, financing all expenses related to moving the collection to southern Chile. This was formally proposed to the Secretary General, who after consultation with the IGS Council approved the initiative in June 2016.

The Southern Hemisphere IGS Library, as it will be called from now on, finally opened to the public in February 2017, and comprises the 485 books donated by IGS along with nearly 100 more from the CECs collection. The news was highlighted in the recent ICE issue, News Bulletin of the International Glaciological Society.

The room selected for the collection was designed by Fernando Basilio, the CECs resident architect, who finished the construction in November 2016. The library is a 40 m2 space with a reading area and an eight-seat table, with a privileged view of the Science Waterfront and the Valdivia River.