Le biblioteche per la convergenza digitale

Abstract

Libraries were born before museums, schools and every actor of the cultural industry in general, accepting all kind of evidence selected for preservation, from administrative documentation to literature. In human history, they are one of the most ancient and flexible institutions. Despite the crisis they are facing in this digital era, they continue to do their job: they select, collect, catalogue, save, share and improve common knowledge. The need for libraries seems to diminuish due to disintermediation and fragmentation, while politics and laws are caught between open access, open data initiatives and the defense of a copyright view that preserves commercial interests. In such a panorama, technology opens relevant opportunities to confirm libraries as places where digital convergency happens, being open and inclusive places.