The library

The Central Engineering Library

The Central Engineering Library preserves the library holdings of various institutions pertaining to the School of Engineering and funds donated by private individuals and faculty. In current acquisitions, the collection privileges the scientific disciplinary area of civil engineering and architecture, and, with different levels of depth, covers the following subjects: civil, construction and environmental engineering, hydraulic and sanitary engineering, construction technology, geotechnics, infrastructure and transport, chemical engineering, architecture and urban planning.
All recommended texts for the teachings of civil engineering and architecture degree programs are acquired.

The Central Engineering Library is housed in the building designed by Daniele Donghi in 1910.
Since its establishment in 1920, in the spaces expressly dedicated by Donghi to this function, it had the role of Central Library with the task of collecting the book collections scattered in the various institutes, cabinets and laboratories that have sprung up since the end of the 19th century within the School of Engineering.
In addition to this heritage, it collects and still preserves bequests from University professors and private individuals. It has undergone structural changes over the years and some phases of reorganization and rearrangement: in the 1960s it expanded through the endowment of new facilities and rooms for consultation; in the early 1970s, at the proposal of Prof. Augusto Ghetti, it established an Antiquarian Section; finally, in the 1980s, it aggregated to the library spaces of the former Department of Hydraulics transformed into the tower storage room called Silos consisting of a self-supporting structure of iron shelves on three floors.

Prof. Attilio Adami, professor of Civil Engineering and director of the library from 1996 to 2004, edited a presentation of the library collected in a publication entitled "A Brief History of the Central Library of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Padua on the occasion of the seventy-five years since its establishment (1920-1995).”
For further study, we present a collection of publications on the history of the building and the School of Engineering.

The "Enrico Bernardi" Library

At the "Enrico Bernardi" site, the collections cover, with different levels of depth, the following disciplinary areas: flight mechanics, aerospace constructions and structures, aerospace systems and plants, fluid dynamics, aerospace propulsion, fluid machines, energy and environmental systems, industrial technical physics, environmental technical physics, mechanical and thermal measurements, mechanics applied to machines, mechanical design and machine construction, industrial engineering design and methods, manufacturing technologies and systems, mechanical industrial plants, nuclear reactor physics, nuclear plants, nuclear measurements and instrumentation, metallurgy, economic and management engineering.

The Institute of Machinery, founded by Enrico Bernardi in 1867 and located on Marzolo Street, did not initially have a proper library due to its proximity to the Central Library of Engineering. Only a few hundred books and some journals purchased by faculty and not accessible to the public were kept.
In the early 1970s, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering instructed a few faculty members from each subject area to select from the Central Engineering Library books of interest to their field of research. Those pertaining to mechanics were then moved in 1974-1975 to the new premises on Via Venezia, on the third floor, creating the Institute's first proper library with an adjoining reading room. Here it remained for more than 30 years, becoming the Library of the Department of Mechanical Engineering with the departmentalization that took place in 1988 and also forfeiting the books and journals of the former Institute of Applied Mechanics of Machines.
From 2002, the Library also began to manage the library holdings of the Department of Mechanical and Management Innovation.
In 2007 it moved to the ground floor in the new open-shelf building, and since 2009 it has been named after Enrico Bernardi, a professor, founder and director from 1879 to 1915 of the Institute of Machines, as well as a brilliant inventor who, among other things, patented the first Italian automobile with an internal combustion engine.
The museum with his works is located in the same building also on the ground floor.

To visit: the “Enrico Bernardi” Machinery Museum.
To read: for an in-depth look at the work of Prof. Enrico Bernardi after whom the library is named, we suggest reading the book “Enrico Bernardi and his contribution to the creation of the automobile”.
Multimedia content: Phaidra Digital Collections - Archive of Enrico Bernardi.

The "Giovanni Someda" Library

At the "Giovanni Someda" site, the collections cover, with different levels of detail, the following disciplinary areas: electrical engineering, converters, electrical machines and drives, electrical systems for energy, industrial bioengineering, electronics, electromagnetic fields, telecommunications, automatics, information processing systems, electronic and computer bioengineering, electrical and electronic measurements.

The history of the library parallels the evolution of the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, which traces its origins to the Chair of Electrical Engineering founded at the Faculty of Engineering in 1903.
In 1966, the Institute moved to its current building, where the library was opened to the public. The library contains part of the bibliographic heritage relating to the disciplines of electrical and electronic engineering that had previously been kept in the Central Library of the Faculty of Engineering.
In 1983, the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Electronics split off and gave rise to the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Electronics and Computer Science, which is entrusted with the management of the library. In 2002, the Department of Electronics and Computer Science changed its name to the Department of Information Engineering.
In 2005 the professional management of the library was entrusted to the staff of the Centro di Ateneo per le Biblioteche while the scientific coordination and technical management remains in the hands of the Department of Information Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering.
In 2007 the library was completely renovated, becoming open-shelf and since 2009 it has been named after the illustrious Prof. Giovanni Someda, an eminent personality in the field of engineering, both for his work as a lecturer and teacher at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Padua, and for his work as a designer and administrator of public and private industrial companies from 1924 to 1972.

For a closer look at the work of Prof. Giovanni Someda after whom the library is named, we suggest reading the book written by Prof. Lorenzo Maranesi entitled "Giovanni Someda : (30 May 1901-31 March 1978)".