History of the Library

The Library was established in 1920 with the foundation of the School of Commercial Studies. The Library became an annex of the School with a reading room in 1928. It is the oldest economic academic library in Greece.

The first yearbook of the School was published in 1928. Despite the difficult issues of that period, the importance of the library's function was not underestimated and its first core collection was made up of textbooks. With endowments from various organizations, the School acquired scholarly works on economics, commerce and trade. At the same time, the Library began to stock its shelves with some of the most important foreign-language monographs and committed to allocating considerable funds from the School's resources to enrich the collections of the Library.

The following year, a catalog of foreign journals, to which the Library had subscribed, were included in the Yearbook. More than one hundred titles were included in the catalog making it possible to directly and systematically monitor all developments in economic and financial issues. Additionally, the Library's mission was to support the scientific study and research at the School and to serve as a central model for all relevant scientific data.

In 1935, the Library was accommodated in the central building on Patission Street.

Old Textbooks

The editions of the old textbooks which date from the establishment of the School up until 1950 are the precursors of today's textbooks. These old textbooks are important because they are papers and articles written by the first professors of the School of Economics and Business, and mark the legacy of economic thought in Greece. Indicative of the names of permanent and visiting professors during that period, whose textbooks are in the AUEB library collections, include Professors Kallitsounakis, Anastasiadis, Christodoulakis, Sideris, Fourkiotis, Miliotis, and others.

Historic Economics Books

The Rare Books Collection includes old editions from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. These publications reflect the economic, social, legal and philosophical thought in Greece during the above-mentioned period. The items in this collection are of exceptional importance not only because they are rare but primarily because they provide important information about the economic history of the country and the developments in its fiscal policies and other topics in the economic life of Greece.

Rare Journal Editions

The historical collections are complemented by scientific journals such as "Economic Journal" from 1891 and "Economica" from 1921. There are also Yearbooks of the School, governmental journals, often from the foundation of the Greek state, and include the government newspaper, budgets and accounts, and documents from the Parliament Archives.

The volumes of these historical collections are kept in special areas. They can be searched in the Library Catalog and users can be assisted by the staff to locate them. For reasons of preservation and accessibility, several of these documents have been digitized and are available from the AUEB Digital Library "Pyxida", always with respect for intellectual property rights.

The AUEB Library constantly expands its collections and services through collaborative partnerships, and preserves and maintains its printed wealth and its historical past.