The People’s Municipal Library of Bologna, opened on July 1st 1909 in the 18th-century Santa Lucia hall at No. 40 via Castiglione, was planned as a branch of the Archiginnasio by its director Albano Sorbelli. He followed the “people’s library” pattern made popular in Italy, in the wake of national Unity, on the initiative of private citizens who, in a paternalistic and philanthropic spirit, aimed at providing working classes with access to the reading and borrowing of books. In this kind of libraries, established to be places and instruments for an ideal continuation of school education, the provision of books was selected in order to promote culture among the poorest classes.