History
The EOIBD library started its activity when the Barcelona-Drassanes Official School of Languages was established, in 1970, with the aim of promoting reading in the language its students were learning.
During the following years, the library’s holdings were expanded to cover other cultural aspects of the languages taught at the school, and to provide methodological support to teachers of languages. In 1994 the catalog was computerized and, gradually, several management programs have been implemented since then, enabling a more efficient management of the documents added to the library and the services offered to the users. In the 2001-02 academic year audiovisual material was incorporated to the library holdings – comprised initially only by books and periodical publications.
The CA (“Centre d’Autoaprenentatge” or Self-access centre) was created in 1991 with the role of promoting learner autonomy by making materials designed to develop strategies and improve their own learning available to users.
At the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year the library service and the Self-access centre merged creating the present Biblioteca-CRAL (Centre per a l’Aprenentatge de Llengües), which offers all types of resources for the learning of the languages taught at the EOIBD.