Centro Italiano di Documentazione Speleologica "F. Anelli"

The Centro Italiano di Documentazione Speleologica "F. Anelli" (CIDS) was established halfway through the 1970s by amalgamation of the libraries of the Società Speleologica Italiana (SSI) and the Istituto Italiano di Speleologia (IIS). It has been dedicated to Franco Anelli, distinguished cave scientist and speleologist, former Director of the IIS and of the Castellana show cave near Bari (S-Italy).

Thanks to several private donations the CIDS currently possesses over 50,000 titles (books, periodicals and reprints). Among the many people who have helped the library to grow are Carol Hill, Salvatore Dall'Oca, Mario Pavan and Vladimir Panos who have made the Centre one of the best documented caving libraries of the World, with donations of rare publications and specialised literature, which are extremely useful from a documentary point of view and for furthering the aims of scientific speleological and karst research. There is a great collection of ancient prints and historical books. These include Dissertationes de admirandis mundi cataractis supra & subterraneis of J. Herbinius, 1678; the third edition of Mundus subterraneus of Kircheri Athanasii, dated 1678; the four monographs of Walvasor, Die ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain from 1689; and the Lezione accademica intorno all'origine delle fontane of Vallisneri dated 1726. These and many other works that have tried to describe the subterranean world since the XVIIth century, are of special interest.

The library is constantly enriched by the exchanges of publications between the IIS, the SSI and many speleological associations around the world. Complete collections of periodicals such as NSS News, Spelunca, Stalactite, Die Hohle, Zeitschrift Hauptv. Deutscher Hohlenforscher, Ceskoslovensky Kras, Travaux de l'Institut de Speleologie de Cluj and many others are also lodged in the library. The CIDS also co-ordinates the bibliographical analysis of Italian speleology for the BBS/SA of the UIS.

The Centre is hosted in the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico Ambientali of the University of Bologna, in via Zamboni, 67 - 40126 Bologna (tel. ++39 051 250049 ssibib@geomin.unibo.it ).

For more details see the website:
http://www.cds.speleo.it