The aim of the Institute for the Study of Capitalism is developing in-depth studies in economic history and theory, in the history of the political, philosophical, and science theories, in the history of international relations, in the political, social and cultural history of the most important countries, and in the history of the international workers and trade-union movement.

Another field of our activity is collecting documentary material on the economic and social situation world-wide. The specialized ISC Library has 16.000 volumes, accessible on open shelves, with an electronic catalogue.

Each book record is compiled with remarkable bibliographical precision and details, when available, the professional profile of one or more authors and other news related to the editing of the book.
In order to enhance reasearches, the Library has a documentation centre working out book-related information (announcements and reviews, historiographical debates, reports on study conferences), selected through the perusal of national and international periodical press and of electronic sources.

The thus created electronic data bank presently consists of 50,000 entries. The paper documentary fund - in continuous growth - contains 100,000 bibliographical and historiographical records. A collection of 500 periodicals is also available, including national and foreign magazines and large catalogues of books available in English, Italian, French, German and Spanish.

The ISC Library is composed of three structures: the Italian Language Library, the Foreign Languages Library, the Periodicals Library.