ESPCI Paris - PSL Historical Research Center and Library

The ESPCI Paris Library provides technical contents and tools, books, journals and databases print or electronic in the areas of chemistry, physics and engineering useful to the students and to the scientific communities of the ESPCI and PSL University.

As part of the Library, the Historical Resource Center (CRH, Centre de Ressources Historiques) preserves and provides archival material related to the ESPCI’s historical and scientific heritage. Historic holdings include a collection of 19th and 20th century works, a photographic archive of 3,500 photos taken between 1900 and 1950, and a collection of research archives in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The library's Historic Resource Center is home to the Paul Langevin, Georges Claude, Albin Haller, Georges Champetier, and Pierre Biquard archives, and documents regarding numerous other figures who have marked the institution's past. It is open to scholars interested in the history of science, scientific communities, scientific instruments and education.

Access terms

ESCPI students, faculty and staff: open access, no registration required.
PSL member institution students, faculty and staff : registration required (library information desk) access is free of charge.
Outside lectors: authorization granted depending on type of research and by appointment, restrictions apply. 

Lending terms

3-week renewable loans are reserved for ESCPI and PSL users. Borrowing is limited to works in the reading room's open access stacks. No reservations possible. 

ESPCI Paris Historical Research Center and Library