The main College Library is named after the scientist and historian of Science Joseph Needham. It ontains 7 volumes of correspondence of Alessandro Volta published by the Istituto Lombardo and obtained through the late Alberto Gigli Berzolari, a Physicist at the University of Pavia and a former Chancellor of the University of Pavia. The library also contains the full national edition of the works of the great Italian naturalist Lazzaro Spallanzani also a professor at Pavia.
The national edition of the work of Lazzaro Spallanzani represented a three decade - long project cordinatated by the Accademia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Modena. In 2013, the Academy donated a copy of Lazzaro Spallanzani's opera omnia to the Library of Collegio Volta through the dedication of Umberto Muscatello, formerly Professor General Pathologist and a member of the steering Commitee that presided over the national edition of Lazzaro Spallanzani's work.
A second room has also been assigned to library use. This second library is named after the British Physicist John Desmond (JD) Bernal and contains textbooks, reference books and a set of books received from the late Marco Fraccaro, a distinguished geneticist at Collegio Cairoli and the University of Pavia. The JD Bernal libray also contains the College textbooks, the magazines for which the College holds subscriptions and the extensive DVD/VHS collections (see below).
Libraries contain a range of textbooks of key subjects for Science, Engineering and Medicine degree Courses. They also contain a range of magazines (Science, Nature, The Economist, National geographic, Le Scienze, La Mente and L' Espresso) and extensive DVD/VHS collections. The College also subscribes to three daily newspapers (La Repubblica, il Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta dello Sport) available from early morning in the College breakfast room. The two main libraries are supervised by two students nominated at the start of each academic year who. For 2012/13 library support has been provided by: Cyrille H Nkwamo and Ylenia Messana (1st semester) and Carine Tiwa Kanouo (2nd semester). Service is Monday to Friday, 6.00-7.00 pm. Students on duty are found in the library or the Master's office. The College aims to offer a full online search facility for books, journals and dissertationis present in the Volta libraries during 2013/14.
Study Rooms
In addition to the two main libraries, the College has a number of study rooms on the 1st and 2nd floor where students may work individually or in group. These rooms are only provided with desks and chairs but are in close proximity of the computer rooms where students have access to computers, printers and copiers.
Computer Rooms
Finally, the College has two large computer rooms on the 2nd floor equipped with several desktop PCs, a couple of Macs and two large colour printer/photocopiers.
Libraries