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The paper presents an analysis of user tasks in the conceptual models, with an overview of the objectives and functions of the catalogue from Cutter to the International Cataloguing Principles, a critical reflection on user tasks and a proposal for a rethinking of these. The user tasks as presented in the conceptual models present critical aspects, in particular they do not bring out some important aspects concerning the users' motivations for searches and the users' competences. The presentation of some critical aspects of user Ttasks is followed by an initial proposal for a more complex reflection on how users use catalogues to carry out searches of different kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reflection, dedicated to the analysis from a gender perspective of three aspects of the disciplines of the book (profession, semantic cataloging and history of the book), is part of the broader context of critical librarianship, and intends to approach these issues with the awareness that it is an unavoidably unsystematic introduction due to the complexity and breadth of the discussion. However, it was deemed necessary to open a debate or at least ask the question because in Italy these aspects have not yet been dealt with systematically and organically and are discussed marginally and in conflict, without being able to arrive at a synthesis of meaning that accepts and re-elaborate the social processes that have been going on for years and the requests coming from the communities that express a way of being and feeling complementary to the canonical one of the masculine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a questionnaire proposed to students and former students of the Vatican School of Library Science on the evaluation of the cataloguer's tools. The results bring out interesting points of reflection on the training needs, on the integration between theory and practice in teaching and on the evaluation of the working tools available to librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents some considerations about the organisation of catalogues and the functionalities of cataloguing tools with respect to the role of a public library. The first section focuses on the definition of the public library and its characteristics in a relationship with the catalogue. The second section deals with some problems of cataloguing organisation, specifically with the peculiarity of a public library catalogue as a bibliographic tool, the issue of cataloguing data types in relation to the users and the catalogue language, and catalogue use and its integration with the physical collection management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the relationship between Wikipedia and libraries, briefly reviewing the history of Wikipedia and GLAM – galleries, libraries, archives, and museums – projects, and evaluating the possible future development of library-related projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Toolkit designed by the RDA Steering Committee makes Resource Description and Access available on the web, together with other useful documents (workflows, mappings, etc.). Reading, learning and memorizing are interconnected, and a working tool should make these activities faster and easier to perform. Some issues arise while verifying the real easiness of use and learning of the tool. The practical and formal requirements for a cataloguing code include plain language, ease of memorisation, clarity of instructions, familiarity for users, predictability and reproducibility of solutions, and general usability. From a formal point of view, the RDA text does not appear to be conceived for an uninterrupted reading, but just for reading of few paragraphs for temporary catalographic needs. From a content point of view, having a syndetic view of the description of a resource is rather difficult: catalographic details are scattered and their re-organization is not easy. The visualisation and logical organisation in the Toolkit could be improved: the table of contents occupies a sizable portion of the screen and resizing or hiding it is not easy; the indentation leaves little space to the words; inhomogeneous font styles (italic and bold) and poor contrast between background and text colours make reading not easy; simultaneous visualization of two or more parts of the text is not allowed; and Toolkit's icons are less intuitive than expected. In the conclusion, some suggestions on how to improve the Toolkit's aspects and usability are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]