Some problems of information in Italian universities today

Abstract

An understanding of how the university is changing is essential for understanding how the circulation of information is changing. It should first be borne in mind that autonomy has produced greater normative and financial responsibility for the universities. The statutes have engendered a demanding self-analysis of the system, which at times merely "photographed" the existing, at others attempted to initiate institutional renewal.

On the technological side, GARR (the Italian academic and research network) has enabled universities to lead the way in introducing the Internet into the research and information dissemination process in Italy.

The process of autonomy, which means autonomous management of the budget, has encouraged universities to look to the outside world in the search for new sources of funding. More funds mean, for example, more students. The strategies to be employed to this end include competition with other universities as regards teaching and services, in the face of a generalised, albeit not uniform, increase in enrolment fees.

A university's promotion requires effective communication skills vis-à-vis the students themselves and society in general: the university should therefore be able to issue documentation and manage a co-ordinated system of information dissemination to the outside world.

On the normative plane one should mention the role played by the latest national employment contract which could lead to important innovations as regards work organisation.

As regards scientific information, its in- and outflows are increasingly entrusted to data processing and the meeting point for incoming and outgoing information is now the networked personal computer. Libraries' role as the outpost of information is now in crisis as a result of the spread of the network and the ensuing increased autonomy of the researcher.

New professional figures therefore have to be created: one solution would be to establish management teams consisting of persons with different professional skills to organise and manage the university's information services.

LUCIA MAFFEI, Biblioteca centrale della Facoltà di economia, Università degli studi di Siena, piazza San Francesco 7, 53100 Siena, e-mail maffei@unisi.it.