A 1947 graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Economics, Asım Kocabıyık believed that books have a great importance in education and applied to Prof. Dr. Mesut Parlak, Rector of the Istanbul University to state his desire to restore the faculty library.
Established as the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences Library within the Faculty of Law in 1934, the library was renamed as the Faculty of Economics Library upon establishment of the faculty in 1936. The library consisted of one room within the central building during its first years and was first moved to a separate building behind the university garden, where it was used jointly with the Faculty of Law Library. In 1981, it was moved to the current building that was used as dining hall and reading room since 1947. Spread over an area of 1500 square meters and three floors, this building was arranged as the Faculty of Economics Library and started providing service in 1981.
However, the library building was worn and became insufficient in time. It was repaired from its foundations to the roof pursuant to the protocol signed between Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation and Istanbul University on June 3, 2005 and the unused basement floor was utilized, the storage areas were expanded and the furniture was renewed and put into service as of January 3, 2006.
On the top floor, there is a 250-seat reading hall, computer room, borrowing section and administrative offices. The middle floor of the library which serves in a closed-shelf system includes the main book storage, thesis storage, periodicals section and photocopy services. There is also a 15-seat reading area established for the books that cannot be borrowed. The bottom floor includes a 25-seat seminar room with statistics, official publications and rare works rooms around a 15-seat reading table.
The library includes approximately sixty thousand fundamental and contemporary books especially on economics and business administration as well as law, statistics, economic sociology, economics history, political science, finance, econometrics, education and literature. Also, approximately fifteen thousand volumes periodicals especially in English, German, French and Turkish and about four thousand thesis submitted in the Faculty of Economics are located in 552 identification registries fully transferred to computer environment.
Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation allocates funds for the purchase of new books worth USD 10 thousand each year since 2005. The Foundation has contributed TRY 40 thousand to the security system of the library built in 2014.