Per cercare di capire: i numeri, i fatti, i valori

Abstract

The contribution deals with the main stages of the introduction of the evaluation of effectiveness in Italian librarianship, within a more generalised innovative movement that led to the affirmation of the themes of “conscious management”. The main working tool developed during that season was the publication in 2000 of the Guidelines for the Evaluation of Italian Public Libraries, produced by the AIB. The profound changes that have taken place in recent decades and a gradual tarnishing of the role of grassroots libraries, to which the lacerations caused by the pandemic in the social fabric have been added in the past two years, now require a rethinking of the methods and objectives for analysing the needs of citizens, defining supply strategies, and evaluating services.