[1] It plays a central role for the mandate of the ICRC according to article 4 (g) of its Statutes "to work for the understanding and dissemination of knowledge of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts and to prepare any development thereof".

[2] The ICRC – or rather its predecessor, the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded – was founded in February 1863 in Geneva by five men: businessman-turned-activist Henry Dunant, who had laid out the basic ideas in his much-acclaimed book A Memory of Solferino; lawyer and philanthropist Gustave Moynier; the medical doctors Louis Appia and Théodor Maunoir; and the General Guillaume Henri Dufour.

It is first mentioned in the records of 1875, but "we may suppose that it was born at the same time as the organization, initially perhaps simply taking the form of a collection of works belonging to the Committee’s founders.

"[1]The actual address of the newly founded Red Cross – and thus at least a part of its fledgling library – became Dunant's private residence, the third floor of his family's "Maison Diodati" in the Old Town at Rue du Puits-Saint-Pierre 4.

However, as Dunant's colonial businesses in Algeria collapsed, he declared bankruptcy in 1867 and was pushed out of the ICRC by its president Moynier in the following year.

It may be assumed that Dunant's collection of ICRC-related publications was transferred to Moynier's splendid city residence in Rue de l'Athénée No.

This Classification system makes it possible to follow the spread of Red Cross action across the world and the creation of a network of National Societies first in Europe and then further afield.

In 1919 he succeeded Des Gouttes as head of the ICRC Secretariat[1] and in that position gave the library a great boost, especially by establishing a systematic exchange of publications with the national societies of the Red Cross Movement.

This administrative reform is part of the efforts to cope with the growing complexity of big data and at the same time the fragmentation of information due to the rapid evolution of digital technologies.

[13] The heritage collection of the ancien fonds (Signature: AF) comprises almost 4,000 books, brochures, reports, manuals and press cuttings from over forty countries.

They include:"preparatory documents, reports, records and minutes of Diplomatic Conferences where the main IHL treaties were adopted; records of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement conferences, during which many IHL matters are discussed; every issue of the International Review of the Red Cross since it was founded; all ICRC publications; rare documents published in the period between the founding of ICRC and the end of the First World War and charting the influence of Dunant's ideas; and a unique collection of legislation and case law implementing IHL at domestic level.