4,000 titles are kept (of which 300 are journals with current subscriptions), especially in the fields of architecture, design, caricature, fashion and the art market.
A collection of advertising posters from 1880 to the present day, a collection of 9,000 samples of wallpaper, printed canvases from the 18th and early 19th centuries, samples fabrics and lace, original designs of furniture and decorations (Fourdinois, Villeneuve, Maubert), a collection of postcards, popular images (such as chromolithographs and Épinal prints) and advertising and commercial documents (labels, menus, games...).
Rare document devoted to printing, consisting of books, brochures, periodicals and more than 900 printer's catalogs illustrated with typographic characters and vignettes.
The library is named for Aimé Samuel Forney (1819–1879),[3] a businessman of Swiss origin particularly interested in professional training and artistic crafts who left a bequest to the City of Paris to create an institution promoting education of artisans.
Founded 1886 in the heart of Faubourg Saint-Antoine, an artisan district of Paris, the premises quickly became too cramped.