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In recent years, Italian academic libraries have undertaken third mission activities linked to the enhancement of their heritage: library science scholars have already been studying this kind of initiatives, and today the Italian national agency for the evaluation of universities and research institutes (Anvur) considers such actions as a result of the institutional commitment of a university library. A workshop, organized by the Library System of the University of Ferrara together with the Italian library association during the Stelline congress 2022 (Milan, 11 march), analyzed the case study of the bibliotour Storie di libri e palazzi, set up by the University of Ferrara; the workshop also explored new strategic opportunities for the enhancement of academic libraries' heritage, firstly the inclusion of all audiences, with specific reference to Goal 10 ("Reduce inequalities") of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Furthermore, this perspective embraces potentially the entire corpus of recommendations provided by the Agenda. The paper is intended not only to report the main ideas that emerged during the workshop held in Milan but, starting from them, also to suggest building a network of academic libraries, in order to facilitate the communication of third mission initiatives and their public outreach. Therefore, full adherence to the inclusive dimension and the commitment to sustainable development are two new strategic opportunities for academic library activities related to heritage enhancement. AIB has been supporting both strategies for several years, by means of concrete actions, such as the "Maria A. Abenante" Award, as well as organizational structures, like the Observatory on library and sustainable development (Obiss). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to focus on the importance of investigating the value and weight given to libraries by politicians, decision-makers and administrators within their political and administrative activities. The article proposes a reflection on the value given to libraries by some Italian policymakers and a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the presence of libraries within the electoral programs of the Italian local elections (autumn 2021-spring 2022). This study has made it possible to construct a map of the positioning of libraries in the mind of politics. This fact is essential for understanding the context from which librarians and researchers can start to change the perception, often simplistic, of policymakers about libraries, to make them understand the impact that libraries can have on society, and to identify effective and efficient strategic actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world of publishing distribution has increasingly become an object of interest for both industrial production and the readers. The recent past showed that books must be selected carefully not only by bookshop managers for their buyers, but also by libraries for their users. Libraries themselves are examined in their relation with publishing distribution: the paper presents an initial analysis of the process enacted to pursue the goal that each individual title may fruitfully contribute to the growth of the whole library collection. The research considers only the acquisition of print monographs from some of the most important suppliers of both public and academic libraries; with these vendors it was possible to entertain a crucial and essential direct discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the observation of the reaffirmed centrality that Wikipedia and its sister projects assumed during the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown, the article presents the Wikiproject Covid-19, in its dual articulation in Wikipedia and Wikidata. In particular, it analyzes the key role of librarians participating in the project, that they assume thanks to their knowledge in the LIS field and in the standardized description of resources through metadata. After a short international review, the paper reports the specific case of the University Library Center of the University of Salerno, where some librarians have actively contributed to the Wikidata Wikiproject Covid-19. Starting from the technical background acquired with participation in initiatives such as Wikicite or international campaigns such as "#1lib1ref" and from previous experiments, through the combined use of various tools and the creation of a rigorous workflow, the librarians have come to process and integrate thousands of data from Wikidata into quality biomedical databases in a relatively short time. The workflow focused mainly on three activities: the insertion of external unique identifiers for authors and scientific journals, the qualification of the items through the addition of bibliographic references and the subject cataloguing of the scientific articles relating to SARSCoV-2 and the related world pandemic. Lastly the essay highlights the limits and the critical issues of the semantic web, of the open collaborative projects and of the specific method used, with some considerations on the librarian's new centrality in the context of open data and on the need to participate in these projects in the in the area of Digital Humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay proposes a reflection on the topics covered during the conference "The privilege of the written word: management, preservation and improvement of personal cards and books" organized by the Department of Sciences of Cultural Heritage of the University of Salerno, with the collaboration of the Library Centre of the University of Bologna, the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna and the National Commission of Special Libraries, Archives and Author Libraries of the Italian Libraries Association. Risks are analyzed, such as those related to the dispersion and fragmentation of materials during the life of the producer, good practices, with the presentation of concrete projects, the approach to new digital technologies. The conference days, organized in sessions, were divided by themes: "Books, papers, maps: the personal workshops of writing and the arts"; "Personal funds in excavation, description and management activities"; "Personal funds between physical space and digital space: the paths of access and enhancement". Part of the event was dedicated to the presentation of the Guidelines on the treatment of personal funds. The publication of the proceedings will certainly encourage new reflections and a remodeling of the same guidelines, also in consideration of the documentary typologies to be treated that were subject of deepening and report during these study days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the spread of ebooks has grown exponentially. 24/7 availability, portability, the advanced tools offered by platforms make this product particularly interesting for academic libraries, which are in an experimental phase with regard to the selection and acquisition of ebooks. The article analyzes three platforms (EBL, Ebrary, EBSCO), to find out whether an Italian medium-sized university library can buy foreign titles in electronic rather than paper, and under what conditions. It provides information about titles catalog, business model, features available. The cut is practical/experimental, since the comparison among the platforms is based on a set, used as a representative sample, of 150 monographs, published in the last 5 years by different publishers and purchased on paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a few general issues concerning librarians' education and professional refresher training, and was inspired by a meditation on the deep changes that are taking place in the world of academic and research libraries. The subject has recently been addressed in a meeting held in Milan on November 22th-23th 2012 - “Stati generali dei professionisti del patrimonio culturale" (States-General of cultural workers) - promoted by MAB Italia. Also, it has become an hot topic after the recent approval of law no. 4 of January 14th 2013, Disposizioni in materia di professioni non organizzate (Rules on professions not governed by a professional order) which introduces new legal profiles for professionals not belonging to any professional order- librarians included. The paper makes a clear distinction between professional refresher training and higher education, claiming that technological and digital skills are essential for the profession, but have to be grounded on a broader and more structured cultural background that may help librarians to deal with the constant changes that all kinds of libraries are facing over and over today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Susan Barbara Tallmon Sargent Collection, one of the numerous digital collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah centered upon the papers of Susan Tallmon Sargent, a physician who served as a medical missionary in China in the early 20th century. The collection includes correspondence relating to her education which culminated in her graduation from Northwestern in Chicago in 1902 and other documents about medical missionaries in China.

Today electronic databases have become the backbone of many academic libraries around the globe including Ghana. This is largely due to its advantages over the print resources. Libraries spend colossal amount of resources on online databases in a bid to enhance teaching, learning and research in institutions of higher learning. This study was carried out to examine the usage of online databases by faculty members of the University of Education, Winneba. It focuses on only the Winneba campus to address the following objectives among others; explore the awareness level of the databases the university subscribes to and to determine the extent of use and the relevance of the databases by faculty. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. The study was a survey and made use of questionnaire to elicit data from the respondents. A sample population of 210 was given questionnaires bearing in mind the research questions which guided the study. Data was analysed using frequencies and simple percentages. The results of the study revealed that majority of respondents were aware of the databases though there were few of them who did not know the existence of the databases. It further established that a number of faculty members who utilise the databases, had knowledge of some of the databases and use them mainly for research and other educational activities. However, the results indicated that though faculty acknowledges the importance of the databases to their information needs, there were few hindrances that inhibit their effective use of the databases, these were; no access to the databases outside the campus, often passwords to some databases not functioning, and issues bothering on internet connectivity. The paper ends with recommendations to ensure effective and efficient use of the databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the institutional background of Italian State university libraries, from the establishment of the Italian Ministry of Culture to the present day - going through the last decade of the 20th century, when Legislative Decree 112/1998 proposed a new institutional organization of the State university libraries within the Universities. The main institutional and service tasks that State university libraries have to fulfill are supporting learning and research, preserving national heritage and providing proper spaces for public reading. The paper analyses the opportunities of interaction and cooperation with Universities and University libraries, as for-for instance-the purchasing policies (especially with regard to electronic resources) and the users' training and information sessions. Given the increasing compression of human and financial resources that hampers the daily management of libraries, inter-institutional cooperation nowadays is more desirable than ever. If on the one hand the plurality of tasks and functions of the State university libraries reinforces their vitality, on the other hand it adds an extra burden on the daily organisation and service management, because of the difficulty of arranging their human and financial resources and of giving the right space and visibility to their several institutional and service tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]