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Since its beginning, IFLA has been concerned with education and training, creating guidelines and standards for educational quality. Ninety years after the first IFLA Conference, IFLA Satellite returned to the Vatican Library with the aim of stimulating a high-level conversation on the future of librarians. This article is a reflection on the IFLA's role in the past and in the present for education and training and the impact of IFLA Global Vision on the education of new professionals. The main results of the conversation during the Satellite are that librarians are no longer the ones who mediate in a passive role between the communities and the collection but have been transformed into active agents of the community and, within it, "facilitators" of knowledge. The mutability of the global world context means that competencies must be reviewed and adapted to new operative instruments. The IFLA Global Vision and a focus on strong value bases may help librarians outline a more solid mission. Among the new disciplines emergent in the LIS context, technology and informatics are fundamental. The competencies in education have emphasized also the fundamental knowledge of research methods and critical abilities in analyzing the results. Nevertheless, librarians are not only users of research; they actively contribute to research and need practical abilities in programming and realization of research projects. From what emerged during the Rome Satellite, LIS is being enriched by new technological, ethical, and social aspects that should be inserted into future curricula and will become part of the librarian's identity. The very rethinking of professional identity has in itself brought a transformation in the LIS discipline, in which the concepts of digital inclusion, social inclusion, and lifelong learning are central.

The article discusses the role of the CERN library in supporting open science, open data, and open access initiatives. The CERN library has implemented various policies and programs to promote open access and facilitate access to research outputs. They have developed repositories and services such as Zenodo and INSPIRE-HEP to store and retrieve scholarly literature. The library has also adapted to the digital age by providing access to electronic journals and online resources. Challenges in managing and preserving digital content have been addressed through the use of institutional repositories. The CERN library has also supported interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange among researchers. The development of the web has influenced academic communication within the particle physics community, and the CERN library has responded by importing metadata from ArXiv and differentiating functions between INSPIRE and CERN Document Server. The library has been involved in collaborative projects and partnerships to promote innovation and best practices in scholarly communication. They employ strategies to promote research integrity and responsible conduct of research. Looking ahead, the library faces challenges in developing measures of research impact and establishing assessment policies, but also sees opportunities in transitioning to a new paradigm of open access and expanding open access initiatives to include books. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: N/A Design/methodology/approach: N/A Findings: N/A Research limitations/implications: N/A Practical implications: N/A Social implications: N/A Originality/value: N/A Contribution to Impact: N/A [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transliteration involves skills, critical thinking and practices based on digital fluency in a changing context. This concept is based on the inquiry process of scientific research, but is currently not integrated into the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) approach. In the first phase of the 'TLIT4U – Improving Transliteracy Skills through Serious Games' project, an attempt was made to clarify the STEAM framework towards an inquiry-based training model. The authors, belonging to different universities in Bulgaria, Finland and Italy, investigated the perception of the concept of digital fluency and the research-process awareness of students with different disciplinary backgrounds at their respective universities. Subsequently, the authors organized interviews and focus groups with teachers, librarians and scholars at partner universities to investigate their perceptions of transliteracy. The main findings and open questions highlighted by the TLIT4U comparative study are presented in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the application of 3D and immersive technologies in digital libraries. Gabriele Guidi, a professor of informatics at Indiana University, explains that 3D technology can be used to create digital repositories of cultural objects, allowing users to search and view navigable 3D models. These technologies also have the potential to enhance discovery and access to digital library collections by providing immersive experiences and additional metadata. Furthermore, 3D models can be used for immersive learning, accessibility, community engagement, interactive storytelling, and crowdsourced annotations. However, challenges exist in preserving and reusing 3D objects, including selecting appropriate file formats and establishing comprehensive metadata standards. The article also explores the role of artificial intelligence in creating and interacting with 3D models and highlights the need for further research in standardizing metadata, improving interoperability, enriching 3D models with semantic information, enhancing user experience and visualization, and ensuring long-term preservation and accessibility of 3D digital content. [Extracted from the article]

This paper reports the development of an international Masters in Information Studies between the Universities of Parma (Italy) and Northumbria (United Kingdom). Rather than concentrating on a detailed discussion of course content, it considers the strengths of an international collaborative course development and delivery and the issues involved in developing such a course and gaining approval for it through the different procedures of two countries. (Contains 2 tables.)

Libraries can refer to the opportunities of participation made possible by digital techno... I believe that the library is primarily a physical space and that the quality of the physical library space can never be reproduced in a purely virtual library. Neither publishers, libraries nor authorities have been able to come up with good solutions that ensure that e-content is available in libraries on the same terms as paper content. The Deichman Public Library is the agency for public libraries of the city of Oslo and operates 22 branch libraries. [Extracted from the article]

During the pandemic, a consortium of libraries in the Milan area (Italy) interviewed the community and applied sentiment analysis to quickly understand the community's feelings toward online services. The model compares both sentiment analysis and topic detection using algorithms that identify sentiments and topics. The results highlight the preference for paper books but the interest in learning more about digital services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It aims to separate library activities based on contingent factors - the Covid-19 crisis - which hopefully will not replicate, from library trends that will become permanent in the post-Covid 19 age". (EBLIDA, [9]) Libraries in Italy at the reopening: the new normal On reopening, libraries in Italy had to face many problems starting with security measures and limitations of services to keep the distance. In March of 2020, in Italy all libraries had to close and did not know when they could reopen to users; libraries remained closed until the 4th of May or more. [Extracted from the article]

The first problematic node is the definition of the subject of music resources, meaning by this expression both musicological studies and the musical works themselves (i.e. music in conceptual form). What could notated music, audio music be for the musical context), the second, what it is about (eg. Music subject headings The second phase of semantic indexing, i.e. the translation of the conceptual analysis into the corresponding subject heading, poses many problems when referring to music resources. One of the first issue in music indexing is that musical terminology as musical expressions, instruments and titles can appear in a variety of languages for a single song: the same title can be known in many languages or in a different form from the original title and the same musical terminology can designate different forms from country to country. [Extracted from the article]

COVID 19 emergency has had a great impact on libraries and led to their closure. An investigation was carried out analyzing literature and online documentation together with administering a questionnaire to about 70 librarians. Italian libraries continued to offer online services during closure by giving access to digital libraries and reference. A renewed online communication, using different tools from the phone to video conference and social media, has been experimented with community engagement. Some critical issues related to libraries organization and policies were most evident during COVID. In conclusion, the COVID emergency pushes for a transformation of libraries and a new vision of service, which focuses on new relationships with communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As digital natives enter higher education, there is the need to improve their information skills but they often overestimate their information research skills and are unfamiliar with the library. The serious games give the opportunity for innovative and engaging approaches to information literacy learning. The paper describes NAVIGATE - Information Literacy: a Game-based Learning Approach for Avoiding Fake Content, a project funded by Erasmus + program. The Project aims to improve the competences to avoid fake content of the higher education students in the Humanities. The paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the students' skills gap and the difficulty of actually assessing the learning improvement achieved by games, highlighting the lessons learned and the open issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data-intensive research environment and the movement towards open science create demand for information professionals with knowledge of the research process and skills in managing and curating data. This paper is reporting the findings from a multiyear study entitled "Data curator: who is s/he?" initiated by the Library Theory and Research (LTR) Section of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). The study aimed to identify the roles and responsibilities of data curators around the world and also focused on the terminology used to describe the new professional roles. The following questions were posed: R1: How is data curation defined by practitioners / professional working in the field? R2: What terms are used to describe the roles for professionals in data curation area? R3: What are primary roles and responsibilities of data curators? R4: What are educational qualifications and competencies required of data curators? To answer the research questions, the research team performed a comprehensive literature review and vocabulary analysis and conducted an empirical study using mixed-methods design. The study consisted of three stages: 1. Literature review and vocabulary analysis 2. Content analysis of position announcements 3. Interviews with professionals working in data curation and research data management- Findings confirm the results from previous research about the lack of common terminology and a variability of the position titles. The concept of data lifecycle highlighted the important role of data curators. However this study also found that many positions in practice were held by non library professionals. The findings indicate that data curation is an evolving sociotechnical practice that involves not only technical systems and services structured around research data life cycle but also a range of social activities around community building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital libraries are services that have been developed and enhanced for years, but the recent COVID-19 pandemic has made many users aware of the service for the first time. Especially because of the closure of libraries, during the pandemic, additional efforts have been made to promote digital libraries and their services, as clearly visible and active libraries. Neatrour, Myntti and Wittmann present "Documenting contemporary regional history: the Utah COVID-19 digital collection", which provides a case study of a born-digital collection initiative undertaken at the University of Utah in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Extracted from the article]

In Europe, the competency-based system of lifelong learning has been adopted with the objectives of improving professional competencies and promoting professionals' mobility. European coordination is carried out through international programs, guidelines, and frameworks. The benefit for digital heritage professionals is to have the responsibility for their continuous professional development and recognition of their competencies. However, some issues are highlighted: How to recognize new profiles using national and static competencies lists? Who needs to evaluate individual competencies? How can we adopt internationally the competencies of digital heritage profiles? The “Digital Heritage: Spotlight on Europe” column examines technological advances internal and external to cultural institutions. The digital shift changed radically how cultural heritage is made, disseminated, distributed, accessed, consumed, and monetized. One of the most important revolutions is that the user's role changed dramatically, shifting from passive observers to active participants and content producers with many new and exciting opportunities for engagement, creative use, and access. The strength of the column is its broad, international focus, and contributors are encouraged to explore issues and recent advances in digital heritage theories, methodologies, standards relevant to the European region, as well as the larger, global audience. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor atannamaria.tammaro@unipr.it. Please include “IILR submission” in the subject line of the e-mail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data curation has emerged as a new area of responsibility for researchers, librarians, and information professionals in the digital library environment. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a large research project sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), under the auspices of its Library Theory and Research (LTR) Section. The primary objective of the project is to identify the characteristic tasks and responsibilities of data curators in both international and interdisciplinary contexts. The ultimate objective, however, is to develop a "data curation ontology" that will better define the profession and support the development of educational curricula to train future data curators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “Digital Heritage: Spotlight on Europe” column examines technological advances internal and external to cultural institutions. The digital shift radically changed how cultural heritage is made, disseminated, distributed, accessed, consumed, and monetized. One of the most important revolutions is that the user.s role changed dramatically, shifting from passive observers to active participants and content producers with many new and exciting opportunities for engagement, creative use, and access. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at annamaria.tammaro@unipr.it. Please include “IILR submission” in the subject line of the email. The development of a clear theoretical framework and the international social role of data curator have emerged as crucial issue for library and information science institutions and schools. Digital heritage institutions are not stand-alone applications, but are rather dynamic ecosystems that need to be integrated with other applications and services in order to develop and to survive. The new profile of data curator is evidenced in the three components of its competencies: the content, the technology, and the social role. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The “Digital Heritage: Spotlight on Europe” column examines technological advances internal and external to cultural institutions. The digital shift radically changed how cultural heritage is made, disseminated, distributed, accessed, consumed, and monetized. One of the most important revolutions is that the user's role changed dramatically, shifting from passive observers to active participants and content producers with many new and exciting opportunities for engagement, creative use, and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Data Management is broadly understood as collecting, analyzing, publishing, reanalyzing, critiquing, and reusing data. The increase of digital content in the broad areas of Institutional and domain specific Repositories, Libraries, Archives and Museums and the increased interest in the sharing and preservation of “research data” have triggered the emergence of new roles such as Data Curator. The paper refers about the on-going investigation of current data curator education and training programs with regard to the role of information professionals and/or data scientists in the research lifecycle. The investigation has been based on a series of workshops and events discussing the concerns of researchers and teachers about digital library and digital curation. A first list of competencies and skills at technical and operational level that professionals should have, has been evidenced. The theoretical framework and structure of educational programmes should have sufficient flexibility to accommodate the needs of various groups of specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence of libraries, archives and museums is mainly about technology, but up till now it lacks a real understanding of the impact of digital technologies on professional identities. IFLA has been discussing about convergence since 2008 along with ICA (International council on archives), ICOM (International council of museums), ICOMOS (International council on monuments and sites) and CCAAA (Co-ordinating council of audiovisual archives associations). The Satellite Conference that will be held in Turin next August will present research and best practices of convergence, and will discuss the academic curriculum required by future professionals in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the internationalisation of higher education for library and information sciences (LIS) in Europe. It notes that LIS institutions are being mindful of the quality assurance issues due to the transition towards internationalisation which is driven by the Bologna Process. However, the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) are tending to the problem that assessors for internationalism are searching for generic quality indicators which are irrelevant to LIS.

The theme of the development of digital libraries is of particular relevance in Europe and by the year 2010 the European Digital Library programme foresees making a collection of at least six million books, documents and other cultural objects accessible on-line. The results of the discussions "i2010 European Digital Library", that took place in 2006, indicated some precise priorities for the development of digital libraries such as the convergence of cultural institutions (libraries, archives and museums) and the encouragement of new synergies between public and private institutes. To what extent can the development of digital libraries in Italy be said to be integrated in the European process? To answer this question, the study Group of the "Digital Libraries Applications" project, promoted by the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale, carried out an investigation in 2006 on the state of the art of digital libraries in Italy. The approach chosen in the investigation was that of the user's viewpoint. It was asked: how has the offer of services and the management of cultural institutions been changed? How has user access to resources been changed as a result of the availability of digital libraries? The aim of the investigation was to understand the priorities of the user and his satisfaction for the services of digital libraries. The investigation sought to analyze the development towards digital of the various cultural institutions, in order to understand how these are renewing the organization and offer of services. It did not just describe the results of the great national projects such as that of the Italian digital library which are already amply documented in literature and in Conference documents. The methodology of the investigation was based on the different tools for collecting data, in order to test a possible evaluation methodology for digital libraries: - an investigation of the user, based on a questionnaire and structured interviews; - a review of the applications of digital libraries in Italy, based on the documentation and personal experience of the experts who participated in the Project's Study Group; - a questionnaire addressed to the staff of the various cultural institutions; - interviews of experts in order to focus on the problems highlighted; - a comparison of the functional character and accessibility of the Web sites of the digital libraries. The article goes no further than highlighting the results considered most important in order to understand the priorities and problems of the development of digital libraries in Italy, while referring to the project's Report for a more detailed description. The opinions expressed in the article are the fruit of the discussions of the Study Group, except for some considerations of the author which are clearly stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to analyse the trends for digital library education in Europe. It addresses two questions: what are the roles for digital librarians? How should they be educated? Design/methodology/approach — The analysis is based on the results of the project "European Curriculum Reflections on Library and Information Science Education" and the proceedings of the Workshops on Digital Library Education, held in Italy in 2005 and in Croatia in 2006. Findings — Three approaches to education for digital library are described: the emergence of the concept of "memory institutions"; the library-based approach to knowledge management; and the isolation of IT from library and information science (LIS) schools. Research limitations/implications — The roles of the digital librarian are suggested, and the structure of a course for digital library education is proposed, but further research is needed on the definition of the digital library concept. Practical implications — A digital librarian should have a combination of technological and librarianship competences. Originality/value — The paper addresses the issue of education needed for digital librarians in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bologna Process, the reform process of the universities after the Bologna Declaration, currently represents both a great opportunity and a challenge for librarianship schools in Europe. It is an opportunity for governments to stimulate and support the internationalization and necessary change of higher education institutions: all European nations have renewed legislation for a reform of the universities in the direction of a common architecture of courses and a better transparency of the teaching offer. It is a challenge, as it is difficult to achieve true cooperation in Europe for the overall improvement of university education. The main aim goal is that of allowing each student to move freely from one university to another, and be able to compete after graduation in the European labour market for obtaining a workplace. It is the first time that internationalization and quality assurance are considered together in Europe. In the Bologna Process, which has been guided by politicians up to now, the professional sectors must now become active. They are in fact responsible for constructing the so called zones of mutual trust areas in which mutual trust is based on agreements and concrete results is created (declarations of good will are not sufficient). Some sectors, as for example that of engineers, have already formed agreements and projects for the internationalization of the quality assurance processes. The article analyzes the problems to be faced when constructing a quality assurance process that is both national and international, centred on the specificity of Library Schools in Europe. The question for which an answer must be found is: how can the Bologna Process improve the quality of education for information professionals in Europe? The paper focuses on the results of a survey carried out by the IFLA Education and training section in 2004. This survey describes how at the moment quality is evaluated in Library Schools in Europe. In particular: it tries to identify the aims and value of different approaches to quality assurance in Europe; a taxonomy of quality procedures in use in Europe is presented; the quality indicators used for Library Schools are defined and also compared with those at international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the development of an international Masters in Information Studies between the Universities of Parma (Italy) and Northumbria (United Kingdom). Rather than concentrating on a detailed discussion of course content, it considers the strengths of an international collaborative course development and delivery and the issues involved in developing such a course and gaining approval for it through the different procedures of two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context of Europe and the ASEAN countries highlights a parallel growth of the concept of information literacy and the diversity of policies to solve information literacy issues. The comparative study aims to understand the influence of policies for the teaching of information literacy in universities in Italy and Thailand and was based on a theoretical framework built by international literature. The data was collected from the analysis of literature and web documentation in Italy and Thailand. The comparative analysis shows that the concept of information literacy has had a similar growth but the influence of policies for teaching information literacy in higher education is different in Italy and Thailand and still in continuous development. The results show that one element of success is the integration of information literacy into the higher education curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Millennial Generation, sometimes referred to as Gen X—those young men and women born between 1981 and 1996—are the first generation of "digital natives." This column reports on how their use of technology has changed public library services in Kyrgyzstan, the United States and Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]