Italy

Directorate-General For The Information Society And Media

Description

Information technology and telecommunications

Sujets

• Informatique
• Marketing et communication

Informations

• Publié par: DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-THE-INFORMATION-SOCIETY-AND-MEDIA
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: Italiano
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Commissione delle Comunità europee
gestione dell'informazione
STATO DELL'ARTE DELL'APPLICAZIONE DELLE
NUOVE TECNOLOGIE DELL'INFORMAZIONE
NELLE BIBLIOTECHE E LORO INFLUSSO
SUL FUNZIONAMENTO
DELLEE IN ITALIA
STATE OF THE ART OF THE APPLICATION
OF NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
IN LIBRARIES AND THEIR IMPACT
ON LIBRARY FUNCTIONS IN ITALY
Rapporto
EUR 11036 IT-EN/8
Ingrandimento derivato da originale in microscheda Commissione delle Comunità europee
gestione dellMormazione
STATO DELL'ARTE DELL'APPLICAZIONE DELLE
NUOVE TECNOLOGIE DELL'INFORMAZIONE
NELLE BIBLIOTECHE E LORO INFLUSSO
SUL FUNZIONAMENTO
DELLEE IN ITALIA
STATE OF THE ART OF THE APPLICATION
OF NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
IN LIBRARIES AND THEIR IMPACT
ON LIBRARY FUNCTIONS IN ITALY
Studio condotto per conto
della Commissione delle Comunità Europee da:
Associazione Italiana Biblioteche
(A.I.B)
Associazione Italiana per la Documentazione Avanzata
(A.I.D.A.)
I- Roma
Codice progetto: LIB 2/8
RAPPORTO FINALE
Roma. Febbraio 1987 - Versione 3
Direzione generale
Telecommunicazioni. industrie dell'informazione e innovazione
1988 EUR 11036 IT-EN/8 Pubblicata dalla
COMMISSIONE DELLE COMUNITÀ EUROPEE
Direzione generale
Telecomunicazioni, Industrie dell'Informazione e Innovazione
Bâtiment Jean Monnet
LUXEMBOURG
AVVERTENZA
Nò la Commissione delle Comunità europee, né alcuna persona che agisca per suo
conto, è responsabile dell'uso che dovesse essere fatto dello informazioni che seguono
CECA — CEE — CEEA, Bruxelles-Lussemburgo, 1988 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. The only general survey on Italian libraries,
conducted by the Ministry for Culture at the end of the
1970s, identified about 6,000 of them. According to their
tasks, they were so grouped:
2 national libraries;
1,514 university;
2,843 public libraries;
1,577 special.
School libraries are not computed here.
These data are very uncertain.
Many of these libraries have no real service organization.
One main feature of this system is the lack of
coordination. 35 libraries, included the 2 national ones,
depend from the Ministry for Culture. University libraries
depend from they for Education (and in effect from
the various academic institutions). Public libraries are
under (indirect) control of Regions. This situation has
created strong regional differences and a fundamental lack
of a national policy.
Ill This is particularly regrettable, since collections in
Italy are considerable (over 100 millions volumes) but not
concentrated. For historical reasons and for the lacks of
the present legal deposit law, there are no large national
reference libraries in Italy. Cooperation would bc- Lne
only workable solution (union catalogues, acquisition
policy etc.), but there has been very little so far.
2. The situation is changing with the pian of a
National Library Service (SBN). This is the first caso of
an agreement between State and Regions in this field,
SBN aims at building an online network of libraries
belonging to different institutions, to exchange
bibliographic records (shared cataloguing) and .1 i !.
requests. Different local bases are working with different
hardwares as well as with softwares produced from the same
f u n c t i o n a 1 a n a 1 y s i s .
SBN should accomplish the national bibliographic control
in a decentralized way and create an efficient and
effective system of collection sharing. In addition, SBN
gives its member libraries the option whether automating
housekeeping functions with software originated from a
common functional analysis.
IV A central "index" machine will contain the national union
catalogue, produced at the local level, and manage the
communications between the local bases, as well as with
the no-SBN world. The SNA protocol will be temporarily
adopted, until complete availability of ISO-OSI.
5 locals bases are already working with part of the SBN
software, on account of 15 libraries, included the
national library of Florence. 5 more bases should be
created in the short term. The index will be completed
within 3 years.
SBN-compatible packages have been produced (SEBINA, Tinlib
etc.) to allow smaller libraries offline participation to
the union catalogue, which is to be published on CD-ROM.
3. In order to identify all automated libraries a
questionary has been sent to the 20 AIB regional sections,
which have a rather complete overview of local situations.
337 totally or partially automated libraries have been
identified. This number should approximate as much as
satisfactorily to the real one.
Many of these libraries are members of a network, such as
SBN, COBBUL (Latium Universities) or the network of
Perugia University (with DOBIS-LIBIS). Furthermore, there
V are 3 public library systems in Lombardia (including in
total about 15 libraries) and one in Piemonte; 2 more ones
are planned in Toscana.
DOBIS is installed at the National Health Institute (ISS),
the National Body for Energy (ENEA), the Parliament; it is
planned at the Central library of the National Council for
Research (CNR), the Universities of Palermo, Modena and
Trento.
In many regions, especially in Southern Italy, there are
no automated systems. For the geographic and typologie
distribution of libraries, as well as standards applied,
kinds of software etc. see 3.2, tabs.1-5.
Most automated libraries are in the university sector, but
there are important examples for other types of libraries
as well. National catalogue standards are rather generally
applied, in-house and commercial packages are equally
represented. Shared cataloguing is quite more frequent
than single, although in most cases offline, with floppy
disk exchange. Most systems are still used only for card
outputs. OPACs are still very seldom.
73 libraries have automated internal housekeeping
functions or are about to do so. Circulation systems are
very represented, particularly in public libraries, but
VI only one makes use of bar codes. Automation of
acquisition, budget, periodicals is also felt as a
priority. Here also there is balance between commercial
and in-house packages. Microcomputer systems are the most
frequent.
4. The situation of bibliographic online services is
affected by the lack of Italian databases, although
official bodies such as the Supreme Court or the
Parliament are playing an active role as producers of
juridical or political information, as the Union of Trade
Chambers is doing for economical information.
The Italian National Bibliography since 1975 is available
online through the Supreme Court's mainframe, but very few
libraries makes use of this possibility: among others, the
Central Institute for the Union Catalogue in Rome offers
this service and in addition, searches in Italian
publishers' database ALICE, or BLAISE, INKA, Telesystemes
Questel.
The two national libraries and the central library of CNR
do not offer any online service.
Although still in an uncoordinated way, university and
special libraries seem to be much more sensible to online
VII information, particularly in scienti f ical and tec nr­: a
fields. Some of these libraries are indicated, nun:
complete and detailed information is not ava¡ i;!.¡<
ESA­IRS and NLM are the most frequently used host:..
Chemab, Pascal , Compendex and Medlars the "best sellerò
among databases. But it is impossible to know how many oÍ
the 800 Italian ESA password holders or among the users o­
the national packed switched network ITAPAC are librari
or documentation centres.
Λ particularly active sector is that of biomedi ■ r.
libraries. This corresponds to a better organization oí
these structures, probably conditioned by better dei in.
and manifested user needs.
An important role here is played by ISS, which make:
Medlars available to many public institutions.
Juridical and economical information needs seem to .
satisfied better by the already indicated Ltaii.; .
resources.
Public libraries are still nearly absent from online
information.
Up to very few exceptions, there are no Videotex service:.
in 1ibrari es.
Maybe a significant barrier to the diffusion of online
VIII