Created by Clemens Heller at the initiative of Fernand Braudel, the library of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme opened its doors at 54 boulevard Raspail in Paris’ 6th arrondissement in 1970.
Its founders wanted to create a research site specialized in the human and social sciences based on inter/pluridisciplinarity with a marked international dimension.
The organization of the collections, which are multilingual and available on different supports, was done while respecting the principle that presided over the Fondation’s creation: promote the most innovative and creative research. The current documentary policy continues to align itself with the main research orientations in the social and human sciences.
Readers of the library are heavily involved in the library’s works acquisition policy, be it in order to stay abreast of the new research orientations, to directly meet their needs, or to ensure coherence in the collections.
Enriching the collections is also achieved thanks to the donation of works: press departments of scientific journals, large donations from researchers’ personal libraries, and exchanges, namely for works published by Editions de la FMSH.
An actor in the national network SUDOC (Système Universitaire de Documentation), the library has also created a common catalogue with the libraries of the research centers in social and human sciences of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, namely the CESPRA = Centre d'études sociologiques et politiques Raymond Aron, the LaDéHiS = Laboratoire de Démographie et d'Histoire Sociale, the CARE = Centre d'Anthropologie Religieuse Européenne and the GAHOM = Groupe d'Anthropologie Historique de l'Occident Médiéval.
- Link to the catalogue, click on the logo
The "catalogue Babylone" is also accessible via the Internet, Babylone being the name of the closest metro station.
