Organised by AIB-CNUR, AIB Sezione Regione Emilia-Romagna, The British Council, The
British Library, GIDIF-RBM, and Sopraintendenza per beni librari e documentari Regione
Emilia-Romagna, an important conference was held in Bologna to discuss the Digital Library
: Challenges and Solutions for the New Millennium. The conference brought together experts
from Italy, the UK and other countries to consider the role which librarians and
documentalists should play during the digital revolution which is now affecting all walks
of life.
Librarians and documentalists are already in the forefront of change. The 250
conference delegates (among which were approx. 40 from medical libraries) heard
descriptions of digital developments in libraries in Italy, UK and other countries,
showing how the rapid development of the internet was allowing library users to gain
better access to information and library resources both in their own and in other
libraries, nationally and internationally.
Forum discussion during the conference in Bologna
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The conference ventured over the whole information chain, from
developments in electronic publishing, through the description and cataloguing of
electronic publications and internet resources, and on to the provision of access through
electronic document delivery.
The digital revolution has already made possible great improvements in library
services, and librarians and documentalists have also played a vital role in improving
information management in the broadest sense in their institutions and their sectors of
activity. The conference recognised and celebrated the achievement of librarians and
documentalists in Italy and in other countries, but also addressed the challenges and
difficulties which they face: copyright, standards, and obstacles to collaboration.
One of the speakers at the Bologna conference
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On the copyright front, the digital revolution has brought new tensions
between authors, publishers and libraries, and the conference discussed how libraries
could most effectively give improved access to digital publications without damaging the
intellectual property rights of authors and publishers. Standards are a vital prerequisite
for a successful international digital library, but they are proving hard to develop, and
are being constantly overtaken by new developments - many librarians and documentalists
are active in the development of standards, but all must become more aware of them.
The greatest challenge of all is to remove the obstacles for collaboration. Librarians
and documentalists at the conference clearly demonstrated their commitment to
collaboration, but at the same time all agreed that still more was required. Only by
working effectively together will they be able to maintain their positive and essential
contribution to ensuring that the digital library brings benefits to education, research,
science, industry and society as a whole.
The first day of the Conference was introduced by Brian Lang from the British Library
and Lorenza Davoli, Assesore alla Cultura, Regione Emilia-Romagna and started with
"Copyright for electronic publications" including the following presentations:
Un nuovo diritto d'autore per le biblioteche digitali? - Marco Marandola
Looking both ways; the library as an intermediary in an electronic age. - Graham
Cornish
JISC Publishers' Association work on developing guidelines for copyright issues in the
electronic environment. - Charles Oppenheim
Copyright or contract: publishing rights in the electronic future. - John Cox
The second session of the day was chaired by Silvio Henin, Roche Milano and was about
"Electronic Publishing", including the following presentations:
Digital Libraries. - Claudio di Benedetti;
Gli scienziati per gli scienziati: JHEP ovvero il rinnovamento della communicazione
scientifica. - Marina Candusso, SSISSA, Trieste;
Marketing during the transition from print to electronic. - Desmond Reaney, Institute
of Physics Publishing, Bristol;
After tea some practical case studies were presented:
The new NHS - Developing the new National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) -
Veronica Fraser, Department of Health, UK;
CILEA digital Library: un servizio di biblioteca in linea per l'universita e la
ricerca. - Fabio Valenziano, Milano;
CIBIT project, Biblioteca Telematica Italiana. - Mirko Tavoni, University of Pisa.
The second day about "Standards and Protocols" was introduced by Rosaria
Campioni, Sopreintendente Beni Libri, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Dick Alford from de British
Council in Italy, Grabriele Mazzitelli, Coordinatore CNUR-AIB and Alfonsa Martelli,
GIDIF,RBM with the following presentations:
Improved access for end users through the use of standards. - Andrew Braid , British
Library;
Metadata e metatag: l'indicizzatore a meta strada fra l'autore e il lettore. - Riccardo
Ridi, AIB-WEB;
Uno standard per il deposito legale delle pubblicazioni online. - Giovanni Bergamin,
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Firenze.
After the coffee break there were reports on the following projects:
La cooperazione tra sistemi bibliotecari iniversitari in Italia (Cooperation bewteen
university libraries in Italy). - Valentina Comba, Torino University;
SBBL: biblioteca virtuale, servizio reale (The virtual library). - Enrica Veronesi,
Brecia University;
The CASA Project. - Peter Burnhill, University of Edinburgh
The last subject to be discussed at the conference dealt with "Electronic Document
Delivery", the session was chaired by David Bradbury from the British Library:
Document delivery come alternativa all'abbonamento. - Anna Maria Tammaro;
The digital future: realities and fantasy; a view from marketing. - Mike McGrath,
British Library;
Document delivery elettronico: nuovi strumenti e opportunita. - Antonio Scolari,
University of Genova;
Electronic document delivery: the corporate competitive edge. - Arlene G Smith,
Smith-Kline Beecham, USA.
The president of the AIB, Igino Poggiali presented a concluding summary of the
conference.
The conference was very much appreciated for the interesting presentations, as well as
for the extremely successful organization with outstanding work of Laura Cavazza from the
local organizing committee.
Abstracts of all papers are available on the web at http://www.aib.it.
The full papers will be published by IFLA and be available for purchase in January
2000.
Wendy Semczuk & María Francisca Ribes Cot
