Update (April 13, 2024): The Biblioteca Italiana Seattle is open again! 

The Biblioteca Italiana Seattle (BIS) is a library of over 4,000 books in Italian available for free to the general public. The collection is diverse and spans every genre, including history, classics, literature, art, and biography. A sizeable collection of film, music, and translations of Italian classics in English is also available. BIS is operated by the Italian Cultural Center - Il Punto.

Our goal, our history

Biblioteca Italiana Seattle (BIS) is a collective of volunteers formed in early 2014 with the hope of providing a wide selection of Italian literature to promote Italian language and culture in the Northwest. For this reason, BIS can be of interest not only to Italians and Italian-Americans, but also to all people who are intrigued by the Italian culture and want to be exposed to the language of “Bel Paese”.

Thanks to numerous book donations from the community, BIS rapidly grew. One of the first donations came from one of our sister organizations, the Società Dante Alighieri of Seattle, which first started collecting Italian books since the 1970s.

Hours and Location

The Biblioteca is located at Casa Italiana, 13028 First Ave. S. Burien, WA 98168

Library will be open on Thursday and Saturdays 10AM-12PM.

Biblioteca Catalog 

Use this link to see the books, DVDs and CDs you can borrow https://www.libib.com/u/bis

• Due to the Aug 22 flooding, some books might no longer be available, even though they appear in the catalog. We'll keep on working to remove these items.  

Fundraiser Donations

We welcome monetary donations at any time to enable further expansion of this wonderful resource:

Donate for Il Punto via Venmo.

Book Donations

We welcome Italian book donations! Books published after year 2000 will be accepted; no textbooks, schoolbooks or language dictionaries please. 

Please fill Donation form (English) and email us at bis@ilpuntoseattle.org.

Contact us and volunteer - internships available!

For any questions regarding donations please email us at bis@ilpuntoseattle.org.

Love books and Italian culture or just want to lend a hand? Signup to become a BIS Volunteer We rely on volunteers to keep the BIS running, so your donation of time would be very much appreciated. Only basic computer skills are necessary, besides a passion for Italian culture and availability once or twice every 6 months.

High school and college students or instructors looking for internship or community service opportunities are strongly encouraged to contact us!