Asım Kocabıyık, holding a BSc in Economics (1947) from Istanbul University and a strong believer in the importance of books in education, personally informed the President of the Istanbul University, Prof. Dr. Mesut Parlak, of his desire to renovate the department’s library.

The library, which had been established as the Library of the Economics and Social Sciences Institute within the Law Department in 1934, was renamed as the Economics Department Library following the foundation of Economics department in 1936. The library, which initially composed of a single room in the Central Building, moved to a separate building behind the University garden, which it shared with the Library of the Law Department. In 1981, the library moved to its current building. which had been used as a refectory and a reading room since 1947. This building, covering an area of 1.500 m2 on three floors was rearranged and inaugurated as the Economic Department Library in 1981.

However, the library building gradually became worn out and insufficient. To meet the new requirements, it was restored from top to bottom in line with the protocol signed between Asım Kocabıyık Foundation for Culture and Education, and Istanbul University on June 3, 2005. The unused lower basement was turned into a functional area; the storage areas were expanded; furniture and fittings were renewed; and the library reopened on January 3, 2006.

The upper floor houses one reading room seating 250 people, a computer room, the lending section and the manager’s room. The middle floor has a closed shelf system and houses the main library storage area, thesis archives, periodicals section and provides a photocopy service. There is also a reading area seating 15 people for the reference books. On the lower floor, there is a large table for reading with rooms around it that store statistics, official publications and rare books as well as a seminar room for 25 people.

The library has approximately 60.000 books including fundamental and contemporary reference books on economics in particular, and books on business administration, law, statistics, sociology of economics, history of economics, political science, finance and econometrics as well as several literature books. Moreover, there are 15.000 periodicals and 4.000 economics thesis in various languages including English, German, French and Turkish classified under 552 computerized recordings.

From 2005 on, Asım Kocabıyık Foundation for Culture and Education has been allocating US$ 10.000,00 each year to the purchase of new books for the library.

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