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Mendely is a multiplatform service: web portal, desktop software and mobile application, which allows you to manage bibliographic references; find 30 million academic documents; and share and collaborate online (6 million profiles). It is proprietary and free, acquired in 2013 by Elsevier.

Presented is an evolutional development of libraries during the 20th century and rapid changes caused in them at the end of the century. Described is the nature of digital data and development of IC technologies as well as their impact on the transformation process of libraries in the Information Age. Predicted are future trends of the development of academic libraries with regard to the change of their role and activity form in the educational environment. Emphasized is the necessity for application of universal software instruments, according to the users’ needs and expectations as well as recommendations of universal standards.

The transformation of collections of traditional academic library in digital or simulated placed the librarian front new occasions and challenges. The internet and specifically the world web lent in the librarian a new role in the management of information with better and more suitable ways. Because his dynamic characteristics as the division, the heterogeneity, the collaboration and architecture, the web brought revolutionary changes in the information access opening new prospects as the academic pictorial libraries that they help in the more effective recuperation and diffusion of knowledge. How would be supposed the academic libraries to see their future in the discovery of information and knowledge services? In the place of existing limited frame that forces the users to visit various scattered sources, the libraries will provide a simulated service of alter-activity with incomparable content and broadness in each type and form of familiar academic content. The academic libraries in this collaborative frame contribute decisive in the creation of open network of distance learning that will offer a alternative solution in the running lists of search engines. This statement presents a model that it helps in the benefit of distance learning in real time in removed users via the facilitations of simulated environment.

Azalea. An oncology knowledge system aimed at patients and the public. Proceedings of the conference held 16 June 2005 at the Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Rome, on the inauguration of the Digital Library – Knowledge Centre “R Maceratini” and the Patient Library. The conference was dedicated to the Azalea Digital Library, accessible via www.azaleaweb.it, which was created as the result of the multicentric collaboration between the seven approved “Scientific Institutes of Hospital Admission and Treatment” (IRCCS) specialising in oncology and under the umbrella of the Alliance Against Cancer, i.e. the Italian “comprehensive cancer centres”. Azalea offers quality controlled information integrated in various formats, such as leaflets, electronic resources, clinical trials, and associations, thereby ensuring that patients are presented with a complete range of cancer information sources. Presentations by doctors, psychologists, librarians and informatics specialists deal with various areas, including information for patients within the ambit of Evidence-Based Medicine, aspects regarding the dissemination of clinical trials information, the initiatives of associations and institutions in the development of leaflets and web resources, and the creation of patient libraries and patient information points. The opening session focused on the organisation and development issues regarding knowledge centres in healthcare. At the international level the Catalogue et Index des Sites Médicaux Francophones (CISMeF) was examined. The study day was aimed at presenting an overall panorama of the state of the art in Italy on health information initiatives for patients and the public.

A new video-based Virtual Reference (VR) tool called VideoHelp was designed and developed to support video navigation escorting, a function that enables librarians to co-navigate a digital video with patrons in the web-based environment. A client/server infrastructure was adopted for the VideoHelp system and timestamps were used to achieve the video synchronization between the librarians and patrons. A pilot usability study of using VideoHelp prototype in video seeking was conducted and the preliminary results demonstrated that the system is easy to learn and use, and real-time assistance from virtual librarians in video navigation is desirable on a conditional basis.

In recent years we have become increasingly submerged by information. As Information Professionals we are called to help our users to cope with this wealth of content: it is not only a matter of quantity, it is a question of quality (improvement or obsolescence), and of rapid change of tools of selection and so on. We are discovering that technological improvements cannot be efficiently incorporated in the day by day professional activity without an appropriate context and a purpose built plan to renovate/refresh our skills, the ways in which we relate to the social environment. These are the reasons why the awareness of the importance of communication is becoming so fundamental. Let us look at some of the most important new services that libraries and their funding institutions are called to provide in the present digital era. E-publishing services: why our doctors and researcher should prefer self-archive their papers and publish them on an open access journal? It seems proved that good communication about purposes and social utility is the key to change old publishing habits. E-learning: why librarians should be interested in this area? As experts of information organization and retrieval maybe we can help to support networked learning. Digital reference: this is definitely something that belongs to our profession but… again, communication role awareness is very important in setting up the service in appropriately. We need to be patient and learn to listen: our behaviour is another way of communicating.