The CIRA library (Centre international de rechereches sur l’anarchisme) collects, preserves and makes available a collection of books, periodicals and documents concerning the anarchist movement, its history, and its ideas.
The International Center for Research on Anarchism was founded in Geneva in 1957, with the idea of preserving and making available to readers a collection that was often kept in poor conditions in attics and in private houses. The idea was born in 1956 at a meeting between an Italian conscientious objector, a French war resister, a Bulgarian refugee and an elderly Swiss anarchist, former activist at the Ligue d’Action du Bâtiment Geneva.
The CIRA collection consists of printed documents in over thirty languages. The best represented language is French (approximately 5000 titles), followed by Italian, Spanish, English and German; far behind come Swedish, Portuguese, Yiddish, Chinese, Russian, Esperanto, etc. The collection also offers over 16000 books and brochures, 4000 periodicals, ephemera and archives, 1500 films where anarchists or allusions to anarchism, 200 audio recordings, and 2000 posters.