Cooperative and inter-institutional digital reference services: direction and guidance to cooperation in italian national and regional laws of Emilia-Romagna

Abstract

Inter-institutional cooperation – as mentioned in several laws and rules designed for the italian Public Administration – is meant to save resources and to improve services for the citizens. In the specific context of library services it gets a strong impetus not only from the observation of best practices in foreign institutions, but also from the existing national laws on cultural heritage, as well as from the regional laws.

The Emilia-Romagna libraries of all kinds and administrations have recently put into action a new cooperative experience to provide services that up to now weren't traditionally included in this kind of inter-institutional synergy – as the digital reference. This paper is intended to highlight how national and regional laws boost this kind of inter-institutional cooperation. Moreover, it tries as well to detect the actual trend in digital information services among the libraries of Emilia-Romagna, using statistical data that can be easily retrieved online at the SIBIB web page (developed by the Soprintendenza per i beni librari e documentari of Emilia-Romagna).