Neighbourhood libraries

The Centre Culturel Irlandais libraries have established links with the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève to allow CCI residents special access to two libraries nearby.

Ecole Normale Supérieure Library

The ENS is one of the most prestigious universities in France, educating the future intellectual elite of the nation. Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and the philosopher Michel Foucault are amongst its famous alumni, and Samuel Beckett taught English there at the end of the 1920s.

CCI’s partnership with the ENS allows our residents access to their prestigious library for the duration of their residency here.

This research library contains more than 500,000 volumes and 1600 periodicals - one of the richest collections in Paris, with direct access to all the resources! You will find it a calm and comfortable place to work but also a fantastic opportunity to meet up with French students and researchers.

Access to the ENS 

Your CCI Library membership card will entitle you to join the ENS library, which is normally closed to external students, and to borrow 10 books per year. Student residents of the CCI also have access to the ENS restaurant for lunch and dinner (around 9€ for a meal). A tour of the ENS library is scheduled at the beginning of each academic year (ask at the Médiathèque for dates). The Ecole normale supérieure Library is situated at 45 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris (2 mins walk from the Centre Culturel Irlandais).

The Sainte-Geneviève Library

Just a couple of minutes from the CCI, in the other direction, the Sainte-Geneviève Library is an interuniversity public library The collections of Sainte-Geneviève are multidisciplinary, with around 2 million items, separated into 3 collections:

The General collection for items published between 1830 and the present day
The Manuscript and Rare Books Department,
The Nordic Department which has one of the richest collections in Europe on Scandinavian and Finnish culture
Access to the Sainte-Geneviève Library

The library is open from Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 10pm, with multiple open Sundays throughout the year. 

Through this partnership, the CCI’s residents can get a “carte rose” (pink pass), valid for 24 months and which allows them:

priority access to the library to avoid any queuing outside.
to consult up to 30 documents from the General collection on site,
to reserve up to 10 documents, from the General collection.

The Sainte-Geneviève Library is situated at 10 place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris (2 mins walk from the Centre Culturel Irlandais).