It is in the libraries that much of the artistic and cultural treasures of each era are kept. In São Paulo it could not be different. Although the city already reveals much of its history, to go further, it is necessary to look for those places where all this is documented, so that you can understand in a deeper way.
We chose to tell the story of some of them – which are equally important for the maintenance of a cultural imaginary and that, certainly, deserve your visit.
Mário de Andrade Library
Créditos: Revista Select
Créditos: Catraca Livre
The Mário de Andrade Library (BMA) is one of the most important research libraries in the country. Founded in 1925 as the Municipal Library of São Paulo, it is the largest public library in the city and the second largest public library in the country, surpassed only by the National Library, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1937, it incorporated the Public Library of the State and, from then on, important acquisitions of books, many of them rare and special, enriched its collection. Its headquarters building, located in the historical center of the city of São Paulo, is considered one of the architectural landmarks of the ”art deco style” in the city.
Following the completion of the reform in October 2010, the Mário de Andrade Library reopened on the 457th anniversary of the city of São Paulo, in 2011. Beginning in 2016, BMA became the first in Latin America running 24 hours a day. The installed stand-alone system is capable of scheduling withdrawal and returning volumes by reading the bar code of the chosen book. In this way, no employee is involved in the process.
On the local, you can find one of the largest collections of art books in the city, a UN depository library and a vast collection of rare works. The library also has programming with lectures, exhibitions and guided tours.
Location: Consolação Street, 94 – Consolação, São Paulo
Contact: (11) 3775-0002
Operating Hours: 24 hours’ service
Library of São Paulo
Créditos: Arch Daily
Créditos: Bibliotecários Sem Fronteiras
Créditos: Bibliotecários Sem Fronteiras
The São Paulo Library was conceived by the Secretary of Culture of the State Government in 2010 as a model project, whose objective is to bring the universe of literature closer to the public that had been distant from books. Installed in the same place where the Carandiru Detention Center (now transformed into the Youth Park by the Government of the State of São Paulo) were, the Library has as one of its main characteristics to make all its collection accessible to the public, which can handle it freely. In its extensive collection of more than 35 thousand items, besides the critically acclaimed classics, there are also the latest releases and best-selling copies of the national and foreign literature, a remarkable fact that differs from the others. Besides that, it is adapted to handicapped people, including furniture, trained personnel to support this public and collection with braille titles.
The Library also offers a cultural program that includes lectures, storytelling, discussions on literary and theatrical subjects, musical performances, courses and games.
Location: Cruzeiro do Sul Avenue, 2630 – Santana, São Paulo
Contact: (11) 2089-0800
Operating Hours: From Tuesday to Sunday, from 9:30am to 6:30pm.
Monteiro Lobato Library
Créditos: Guarulhos.org
The Monteiro Lobato Municipal Library is the oldest in the city, inaugurated in 1936, as part of a large project to encourage culture by a group of intellectuals led by Mário de Andrade. Its cultural importance is due to its work with the adolescent public, since the place has a bibliographic collection destined to this category and receives visits of private and public schools throughout the year. Visitors also find spaces for cultural attractions such as the arts room, disco, rare books section, puppet theater, the Monteiro Lobato Collection – which includes documents, personal objects, biography and books , the Teatro Infantil Monteiro Lobato (TIMOL), the youth Academy of Letters, video room and bank of theatrical texts.
Location: General Jardim Street, 485 – Vila Buarque, São Paulo
Contact: (11) 3256-4038
Operating Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; Saturday, 10am to 5 pm; Sunday, 10 am to 2 pm.
Libraries of the Cultural Centre of São Paulo – Sergio Milliet/Alfredo Volpi/Louis Braille/Gibiteca Henfil
Sérgio Milliet – Créditos: Guia da Semana
Alfredo Volpi – Créditos: CCSP
Gibiteca Henfil – Créditos: Guia da Folha
The Sérgio Milliet library is the second largest public library of the city of São Paulo, as well as the only one that is open on Sundays and holidays. It was inaugurated in March 1983, and has a multidisciplinary collection with more than 110 thousand titles, which can be consulted freely in Cultural Centre.
Alfredo Volpi is the section of the Sérgio Milliet Library that houses the CCSP arts collection. The collection consists of catalogs of art exhibitions, books on plastic arts, architecture, photography, fashion, recreation and performing arts, as well as periodicals and CD-Roms. Highlight for the Cinelândia magazine collection, published between the 1950s and 1960s.
The Louis Braille library was designed and equipped to serve visually impaired users. It gathers more than 6 thousand titles, between books in braille and audiobooks, besides computers with specific programs for the user’s accessibility. The collection includes didactic and accompanying works for primary, middle and university students, children’s literature, works of fiction, with classics of Brazilian and Portuguese literature and spoken periodicals.
Gibiteca Henfil has a collection of more than 10,000 titles among comic books, periodicals and HQ books. Its diverse programming, involving workshops, lectures, exhibitions, film and game shows, attracts fans and professionals.
Location: Vergueiro Street, 1000 – Paraíso, São Paulo
Contact: (11) 3397-4002
Operating Hours: The schedule varies according to the Library.
Victor Civita Latin-American Library
Créditos: http://www.bibliotecavirtual.sp.gov.br
The Victor Civita Latin American Library, linked to the Brazilian Centre for Latin American Studies, was inaugurated on March 18th, 1989. Its main objective is to act as a dynamic nucleus of documentation, making available to the general public, and particularly to researchers, information on what is produced culturally in Latin America. It is a specialized library that seeks to gather, organize and disseminate the representative cultural expression of each Latin American country, using a variety of information media (books, theses, periodicals, DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes And CDs). Currently, the collection consists of more than 30 thousand volumes, having as main themes social sciences, popular culture, economics, history, arts, literature and spoken periodicals.
Location: Auro Soares de Moura Andrade Avenue, 664 – Barra Funda, São Paulo
Contact: 11 3823-4732
Operating Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm; Saturday, 9am to 3pm.
Alceu Amoroso Lima Library
Créditos: http://arqfigurinhas.blogspot.com.br
Inaugurated in December 1979, the Biblioteca Alceu Amoroso Lima, which has about 40 thousand volumes in its general collection, was installed in the Pinheiros neighborhood after a movement of claiming the residents and merchants, who did not find in the region an appropriate environment for reading and accessing the information. The space was reformulated in 2006 and now has an exclusive floor for the Thematic Poetry Centre, where the public can enjoy the collection of poetry in an environment conducive to reading, courses and workshops.
Location: Henrique Schaumann Avenue, 777 – Pinheiros, São Paulo
Contact: (11) 3082-5023
Operating Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm; Saturday, 9am to 4pm.