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The general trend to the information society and consequentily to an econonomy based on the information, put on the profession of the librarian as a new job contest that is the world of electronic information. It is going on between two processes: on one hand Internet as a new mass media well-known all over the world, on the other hand the uncertainties of the new economical structure of the modern society.

The path of AIDA national conferences in its first twenty years of activity is examined. The analysis is carried on in the light of the FID and ASIS conferences organised in the same years. The topics of the AIDA conferences are further examined with respect to events and publications resulted seminal and meaningful in both the Italian and international developments of the discipline of Information Science.

The Institute for Studies on Scientific Research and Documentation (ISRDS) of the Italian National Research Council has been cradle and home for AIDA during its first 20 years. From the Institute the Association absorbed vital lymph both for the definition of its programmes and for its own management. Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of AIDA, it could be useful a reflection about a number of factors, such as: the influence of the cultural humus in which AIDA has been immersed during all its existence till now, the stimuli seized and the opportunities missed by AIDA. To this end, and for the benefit of the reflection, the paper will give a review of those ISRDS's activities particularly oriented towards the launch of a National Scientific Information Policy together with those oriented to the systematic documentation of science, a strategic factor for every National Scientific Policy.

Considering scholarly communication as an element of scientific information policy means, first of all, defining criteria for its measurement. This paper is aimed at proposing a framework for the analysis of the scholarly communication process, in order to help in the development of indicators for the process as a whole. The first step is to identify a set of variables involved into the process of scholarly communication. A basic distinction is then made among variables which are here grouped into two general classes: scientific information (i) and diffusion (d). Within such a classification, variables are distinguished as national and international, depending on the kind of control applied over them. For each of the identified variables is strongly required a universally accepted definition of criteria for their measurement, in order to allow for international comparison of different scholarly communication systems. Finally, a number of ongoing activities in Italy aimed at measuring some of the most significant variables of the process are described.

From the different meanings of “information society” it seems to be excluded every reference to diffusion processes and transfer to the need of a culture of information. Early intuition that of Paul Zurkowski that in 1974 created the term “information literacy” (IL), suggesting a national program aimed to the diffusion of a new kind of literacy. Europe seems distract on this theme and seems to understand partially the motivations coming fro US. It is possible to individuate different-level intervention to promote information culture in Italy.

The Documentation works in a complex way on objects hardly measurable. This fact is an obstacle for the understanding of the discipline from people working outside it. Finding the historical roots of documentation, particularly the idea of dossier, can help to identify its main characteristics, to define it. This approach is of particular importance in Italy, where documentation as discipline and profession is still unknown.

Impact and sustainability are the leitmotiv of current Research Policies in Europe. Science is required to show its positive socio-economic influence on Society, and Humanities Research is not exempted from this requirement. Within this context, Digital Humanities might enhance the external impact of Humanities Research, more specifically the commitment to public engagement, by means of strategic opportunities offered by digital techniques. To pursue this objective, intermediation seems necessary in order ‘to switch Humanities on’ within Society. Actually, virtual objects might be as speechless as real ones, i.e. books in a library without users. The value of a Digital approach lies in its usability, in the additional tools and helps it supplies, and in stimulating users in becoming active agents of their reading. As in a good storytelling the attention to what can provoke reactions is as important as the action narrated itself, digital objects need hints to stimulate and activate users’ curiosity, questions and original solutions. The paper concentrates on three elements: the requirement for external impact of research activities; the need for intermediary agents and a concrete experimentation of intermediation. Digital Humanities are analysed in the context of the Humanities and beyond the academic realm, in their targeting diverse recipients, external to the scientific community. The test conducted so far is addressed to the specific stakeholder community of teachers, called to act as intermediaries between Humanities Research outcomes and the Scholastic Community., Umanistica Digitale, No 1 (2017)

Social media have been analysed in different studies and from different perspectives, and the findings show that they can constitute new forms of impact indicators of scientific activities, intended at large and not limited to the publication. Therefore, new forms of research evaluation are emerging as alternative to the traditional citation-based metrics. Initially based on web links or download numbers (webometrics) the new evaluation methods have evolved into alternative metrics, or “altmetrics”, based on the set of activities covered by social media services. In view of the above, the paper concentrates on academic blogging as a form of scholarly communication in the Open Science context, and on the disciplinary areas of the Humanities and Social Science as privileged domain to be investigated. The OpenEdition initiative is analysed as a complete infrastructure for the digital resources for the Humanities and Social Sciences and as a concrete exemplification of quality filters applied to these (relatively) new media. Includes: Conference preprint, Powerpoint presentation, Abstract and Biographical notes XA International

Presentazione tenuta al Seminario “Competenze digitali: da information literacy a transliteracy" organizzato da UniPR Co-Lab in data 10 marzo 2015 presso l'Università di Parma