PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL LIBRARIES

This course falls within the education activities which characterize the master degree in History and management of archival and bibliographic heritage. This degree aims at forming students who will eventually work at cultural agencies responsible for setting up, describing, exploiting, and preserving collections of archival and bibliographic nature.
The principal scope of this course consists in transferring knowledge concerning some of the digital tools and network services which are widely used at national and international level. The ability to take part in the design and creation of digital projects involving management, description, exploitation, circulation and reuse of library and archival objects will be also stimulated.

The participation in the planned activities (frontal classes, lightning-talks, and laboratory works, as well as individual study) should enable students to put in practice methods, tools and standards learned theoretically; to develop projects aiming at exploiting and circulating archival and library items in digital format; to share and to co-ordinate working groups.

Although no specific knowledge is required, a basic knowledge of library and archives procedures, such as cataloguing and indexation in particular, and of electronic treatement of bibliographic information is desirable.

The dissemination of digital products in the last three decades has represented a radical change in the way information is created, circulated and shared by the users of the web. Two phenomena in particular will be considered:
1. the use of digital media in the creation of textual material under various forms (blogs, websites, etc.)
2. the creation of digital libraries by cultural agencies (libraries, archives, art galleries, museums, film and music libraries, performing arts) aiming at exploiting their collections.
Students will create a virtual exhibition prototype on a chosen subject and publish it on an extensively used free platform.
Three main approaches will be followed:
1. technical and methodological, including basic definitions, as well as the observation of contexts in which digital library projects are commonly developed
2. the creation of a virtual exhibition, including the strategies which should increase its identity and visibility in the net
3. the presentation of resources, standards, and products by means of lighting talks assigned to students
Readings both in Italian and English will be suggested to attendees

Selected texts from:
Louis Rosenfeld - Peter Morville, Architettura dell'informazione per il World Wide Web, Tecniche Nuove
Marina De Rossi - Corrado Petrucco Le narrazioni digitali per l'educazione e la formazione, Roma, Carocci
ICCU - ICAR, in collab. with OTEBAC, Mostre virtuali online. Linee guida per la realizzazione
OTEBAC, Manuale per la qualità dei siti web pubblici culturali

Other material will be made available through the educational platform of the university

Three factors will be considered in evaluating a student:
1. the creation of the virtual exhibition: the student's ability to work as a team, to take responsibility for the production of specific parts of the exhibition (also in consideration of his/her curriculum and cultural interests), and to plan and coordinate in turn the tasks carried out by the working group, will be prevailing on the intrinsic quality of the digital product
2. the lightning-talk: the student's ability to introduce effectively the features of a digital resource within the allotted time
3. the understanding of tools, standards, and sites: the oral part of the exam will provide an opportunity to evaluate the understanding of concepts set out throughout the course, as well as his/her ability to analyze and evaluate the quality of a resource in terms of sustainability of the organizational model, reliability of data, and accessibility of services provided to the users

Working as a team will play a key role in testing the students' ability to interact, to share, and to reflect critically on one's own work as well as the work of others (by peer-review practice)

Italian

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development