LIBRARY

HSGME Library

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Collections

The HSGME Library is one of the largest specialized science libraries in Greece and one of the most up-to-date in the geosciences. It is among the Authority’s most public-facing services—supporting scientists, private users, consultants, researchers, students, and HSGME staff—both onsite at the Authority’s headquarters in the Olympic Village and online.

The Library’s mission is to preserve geological information for the long term. It holds more than 150,000 titles across all geoscience subject areas and is continually enriched through donations, acquisitions, and new publications. The collection includes authoritative books, rare editions, studies, maps, reprints, journal volumes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and general-interest works covering nearly 170 years of geoscience knowledge.

Books

The book collection includes 14,000 titles spanning the full geoscience spectrum—general and engineering geology, mineralogy, volcanology, petrography, paleontology, hydrogeology, geophysics, ore deposit geology, geochemistry, and more. The collection is continually updated so researchers can access both foundational texts and the latest findings.

Rare Editions

The rare editions collection comprises 292 titles, including some of the few surviving copies worldwide of landmark works by renowned researchers. It also features photographs, hand-drawn maps, and engravings of notable historical value. Indicatively, 50 volumes date to the 19th century, 134 to the first half of the 20th century, and 99 are unique/out-of-print editions from 1950–1993. Languages vary (Greek, English, German, French, Italian, Russian).

The oldest item in the “Rare Editions” collection is a two-volume work published in Leipzig in 1840 (Part I) and 1841 (Part II): Reise durch alle Theile des Königreiches Griechenland … 1834–1837 by Karl Gustav Fiedler, prepared for the Greek government under King Otto.

HSGME Studies

Nearly 14,000 unpublished technical reports and studies—with thousands of specialist thematic maps and measurement tables—authored by HSGME scientific staff. These cover every region of Greece and provide reliable data to interested users. All materials are protected by HSGME copyright and provided for personal use only. Commercial use requires written permission from HSGME.

Journals & Article Reprints

706 journal titles (over 40,000 issues) of Greek and international scientific periodicals (from 1849 to 2020), 350 of which are available exclusively at the HSGME Library. The oldest journal issue is from 1850: volume 7 of Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France – Deuxième Série (1849–1850).

About 7,000 article reprints are available to readers. The collection is continuously updated, providing access to significant datasets and evidence-based information across geoscience topics.

Maps

The Library holds 5,000 maps, including 513 on Greece—geological, hydrogeological, metallogenic, seismotectonic, geotechnical, and more. These are in high demand and often unique to our library, giving them global reach and historical value. Notable examples include R. Lepsius’ geological maps of Attica (1891) and his Geology of Attica, also available in G. P. Vougioukas’ 1906 Greek translation.

HSGME Publications

Over its century of operation, HSGME has produced an extensive body of publications across geoscience fields, featuring research by HSGME staff and other Greek and international scientists. The current collection includes 260 study titles—ore deposit geology, hydrogeology, general and geophysical geology, statistics, mineral raw materials evaluations, techno-economic studies, geochemistry, mining and metallurgy. Many include key maps, borehole measurements, inventories of karst and hydrothermal springs, and a wealth of other data supporting research.

Atlases, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

The Library hosts a substantial set of atlases, dictionaries, and encyclopedias—geological, geochemical, geothermal, petrological, and marine—for Greece and worldwide. Many are archival and invaluable for future generations of geoscientists, often unavailable elsewhere. Produced by reputable institutions and expert author teams, these high-quality, hardbound editions—with high-resolution maps, images, and explanatory text—support documented research by HSGME staff and universities in Greece and abroad. The richness and public availability of this collection reflect HSGME’s commitment to advancing knowledge, research, and learning.

The Library’s extensive information resources have supported thousands of users over the years and are particularly useful for geological research and young geoscientists.

A popular item is the Dictionary of geological terms in four languages by G. E. Christodoulou (former IGME, now HSGME). It covers stratigraphy, structural geology, general geology, geomorphology, petrography, micropaleontology, volcanology, geophysics, and more—40,200 terms in total, including 32,200 non-Greek entries.

Geographic Search

This service complies with Regulation (EC) No. 976/2009 (as amended by 1088/2010) and the Technical Guidance for the implementation of INSPIRE Discovery Services v3.0. It enables discovery across metadata catalogs using criteria such as keywords, area of interest, data category, temporal extent, creation date, scale, etc.

Studies can be located spatially on a map. Users can search any area via a bounding box and query study metadata (keywords, accession number, etc.).

Access: https://catalog.eagme.gr/geonetwork/meletes/eng/catalog.search#/home

Open-Access Electronic Resources

A wide range of academic open-access resources—books, articles, dissertations—are freely available online, offering unrestricted access to their content.

User Education

The HSGME Library offers personalized guidance on available services and how to make the most of its information resources, including:

• Tours of the Library
• Overview of collections and services
• Usage and lending policies
• Types of reference resources
• Overview of electronic resources
• Access methods and search techniques for the online catalog
• Introduction to bibliography-management tools

Donations

The Library accepts donations following evaluation, with the core criterion being alignment with HSGME’s subject areas. The Library may accept all or part of a donated collection and select which items to integrate, provided they support collection-development goals, storage space is available, and items are in good physical condition. Acceptance of exchanges/donations is approved by the Authority’s General Directorate upon recommendation by a committee (one Library staff member and two subject-area staff members).

Typical evaluation criteria include the material’s importance/rarity, relevance to the Library’s scope, physical condition, storage/maintenance costs versus benefit, ability to fill gaps, relation to HSGME’s research activity, and—where applicable—technical feasibility for electronic materials.

Donation terms: donors acknowledge integration into the Library collection and necessary processing; no conditions are accepted on binding, placement, classification, cataloging, or future use; the Library’s Donation Register is updated for each donation; donor names are recorded on items and displayed in the public catalog; the Library may re-evaluate past donations; the evaluation committee issues a brief, signed decision (acceptance or rejection) shared with the donor; in case of acceptance, a thank-you letter is sent on behalf of the Authority.

Donation process: initial donor notification; follow-up by the Library to assess materials, subject, and condition; if suitable, items are delivered to the Library and processing begins, with the donor’s name recorded on the item and in the intake log; duplicate titles may be exchanged with other libraries; a detailed acknowledgment letter is sent listing all accepted items.

The Library’s Donation Register records: donor details; date, method, and brief acquisition history; size, coverage period, and formats (archival, periodicals, rare books, audiovisual, etc.); and initial shelving locations plus any future relocations within the Library.

Read the Library Operating Regulations: here