It occupies nearly half of the ground floor of a bourgeois palace dating back to the late 19th century, located at the intersection of the town’s two main streets.
The building was completely renovated in the 1980s but has preserved the sober elegance and materials typical of the noble architecture of rural centers. Following the first restoration, the birthplace retained its local stone façade and original interior finishes. The most recent renovation, aimed at transforming the library into the Luigi Russo Study Center, created a more modern, equipped, and research-oriented environment.
The library was founded as the “Civic Library” on February 22, 1967, under Mayor Professor Luigi La Verde.
At a difficult historical moment, when illiteracy deeply marked the socio-economic fabric of Delia’s population, the establishment of the new library laid the foundations for a new cultural policy focused on the dissemination of information and the civic education of citizens.
In this context, the library replaced the only existing “reading center” at the time, represented by the School Library—initially known as the “Reading Center” and later as the “Popular Library.”
Until then, the school library had sought to alleviate the lack of information—symptom of widespread illiteracy—limited to the younger generations.
With the advent of the Civic Library, all barriers to information disappeared, and every citizen, regardless of age or social class, gained the opportunity to approach the world of books.
Through book consultation and lending services, knowledge began to enter people’s homes.
From that time until today, the Civic Library, later renamed the “Luigi Russo Municipal Library,” has remained the only local public space connecting the community to the wider cultural world beyond its borders.
The central core of the library consists of a collection of over ten thousand volumes, including first editions, manuscripts, and autograph letters of the distinguished literary critic.
On the façade stand out a gray marble plaque with a text by Walter Binni, commemorating the library’s opening to the public in 1986, and a high-relief portrait of the critic, created by the sculptor from Caltanissetta Girolamo Ciulla.