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The paper illustrates the results of a survey conducted in the period January-February 2023 involving the users of the Turin Public Libraries, an urban system currently affected by a significant strategic rethinking process. Through the analysis of the answers to questionnaire provided by 3,926 people, it was possible to bring to light the complexity and the multidimensionality of the act of reading and to gather interesting information on three central issues: the process that leads readers to choose the book; the libraries' role in fostering and enriching the reading experience; the complementarity between book and other form of access to narrative world, both outside and within libraries. These cognitive elements can help both to improve the collection development policies and to favor the meeting between readers and collections, also through their integrated and transmedial organization within an enriched physical and virtual bibliographic space, which stimulates and enhances the reading experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part the paper illustrates the results of an analysis of the Italian editorial production on LGBTQ+ issues, limited to non-fiction for adults published between 2016 and the first half of 2021. Subsequently, the analysis focuses on the representativeness of these publications within the collections of the library systems located in ten large Italian cities. A comparative study is carried out on various aspects: years of publication, publishers, DDC classes, Conspectus levels, usage data. Moreover, through interviews with librarians a qualitative survey is also conducted, to bring to light additional elements, including the reasons and criteria for the acquisition or the non-acquisition of LGBTQ+ titles. In conclusion, after a comparison with similar studies conducted in other geographical contexts, the author tries to understand whether cognitive biases are among the factors influencing the development of LGBTQ+ collections. Bringing out any bias is fundamental to make librarians more aware and to emphasize the professional ethics and the principles of plurality on which the concept of public library is based. This type of study also allows to obtain detailed information elements to be taken into account in projects aimed at implementing recommendation systems that exploit the potential of Artificial Intelligence and, in particular, of machine learning: it should not be forgotten, in fact, that algorithmic biases reflect real-world biases. temi e analisi [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a new methodological approach to collection evaluation in public libraries, with the aim to read bibliographic and usage data in a less self-referential way and to improve collection development and management. Behind this approach there are two integrated types of analysis. The first one is a quantitative and qualitative benchmarking between different library collections: the attention focuses on the size of collections, the variety, the publishers, the subjects, the circulation data. The second type of analysis concerns the benchmarking between library collections and editorial production. Also in this case, the comparison covers the quantitative aspects (number of books selected by libraries and number of books published), the qualitative aspects (subjects, types of documents, Conspectus levels) and the usage data (loans and sales). The paper illustrates the results of a first and experimental application of this methodological approach for the analysis of collection portions of 26 public libraries (belonged to two Italian library systems), that are compared with the editorial production of the subject area Social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper completes the study on systems for managing electronic resources and examines the library services platforms (LSP), next-generation systems that allow to manage within a single platform the entire life cycle of all resources (print, electronic or digital), regardless of granularity and of acquisition mode. In this way the library services platform integrates various functions first guaranteed by the use of separate instruments, in particular ILS, ERMS and link resolver,resulting in numerous and significant advantages in terms of efficiency. The paper describes functionalities and technical features of these new products and offers an overview of the main library services platforms, proprietary and open source, available on the market. The paper concludes with the results' presentation of a survey about the use of library services platforms at italian academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the road that – at the beginning of the 2000s – led to the implementation of ERMS, management systems specifically designed for electronic resources. An ERMS is a software that enables libraries to control and manage every step of the complex e-resources life cycle, in order to rationalize the entire management process. The paper analyzes ERMS features, technical characteristics, advantages and weaknesses, as well as the main products – both proprietary and open source – available on the market. This study will be completed by a second paper focusing on library services platforms (LSP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is an analytical report of the IFLA satellite conference “Space and collections earning their keep: transformation, technologies and re-tooling" organized in Paris by the IFLA Acquisition and Collection Development Section and by the Library Buildings and Equipement Section. During the conference, twenty-two speakers from twelve different countries presented the best practices in restoration/reorganization of existing libraries and in designing new library buildings. All the projects showed a common goal: reorganizing the library space according to the transformation of library collections as well as to the users' needs, and enhancing the social function of the library both as a place of individual and group study, and as a meeting and entertainment space. In order to do this, it seems necessary to give up the notion of a permanent and unchanging space and to embrace the idea of a flexible, pleasant and multifunctional space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]