The National Library Service of Italy () is a Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities promoted network of Italian libraries, in collaboration with Regions and Universities, and coordinated by the Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information ().
History
The project for the National Library System is born with the goal of overcoming the fragmentation of, and fostering the co-operation among, Italian library structures, on the impulse of the National Conference of Italian Libraries held in Rome from 22 to 24 January 1979. It was designed by Angela Vinay (Director of ICCU) and Michel Boisset (Director of the European University Institute Library), in collaboration with a group of librarians and computer scientists. The planning phase was officially started on 4 April 1980, with the establishment of an experts' commission made up of representatives from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MCHA), the ICCU, the National Central Library of Florence, the European University Institute and the National Research Council.
The final document produced by the Commission proposed the creation of the service, articulated in: a union catalogue of library resources, produced by the integrated set of local catalogues; a national bibliographic database, ensuring quality, completeness and consistency of bibliographic description; a national service for document access.
In 1982 the project was presented by Angela Vinay to the library community on the occasion of the 30th Congress of the Italian Libraries Association held in Giardini-Naxos on 21–24 November 1982. In 1984, MCHA subscribed a protocol of understanding with Regions for the development of the SBN project.
In 1985, the first two Poles were established, those of the National Central Libraries of Rome and Florence. From 1987 to 1990, the project "Library Heritage System" () made it possible to recover the catalogues of the National Italian Bibliography (Bibliografia nazionale italiana, BNI), the Bulletin of Foreign Modern Works (Bollettino delle opere moderne straniere, BOMS) and other catalogues related to music and Southern Italy-theme funds, which came to constitute the first substantial nucleus of the catalogue. In 1992, the protocol of understanding MCHA-Regions was extended to the Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research involving many university libraries in the project. In addition, through the connection of more Poles to the SBN network, the national network was officially activated.
In 1996 a feasibility study was started to create a single database, integrating the previous ones related to modern books, ancient books and music, and enable the management of graphic and cartographic material, also allowing a certain degree of interoperability with programs not developed within SBN.
In 2002, with the startup of the project "Evolution of the SBN Index" (Evoluzione dell'Indice SBN), a restructuring and a rationalization of the Index central database, as well as its opening to other library management systems not related to SBN, using the more widespread bibliographic formats (UNIMARC, MARC21).
Organisation
The National Library Service connects state, local authorities, university and private libraries operating in different disciplinary sectors. Participating libraries are grouped in local hubs, connected in turn to the SBN Index, which contains the collective catalogue of the heritage possessed by the libraries adhering to the service. Adherence to the service implies for the library or local library hub to subscribe an agreement with ICCU, to define their respective commitments to the development of SBN and related services.
One of the fundamental functions of the National Library Service is the participatory cataloguing among adhering libraries: every bibliographic record (books, authority codes or other things) is described only once by the library or library hub which acquires it first. The other libraries merely report the record already registered within the Index in their own catalogue, only adding the indication that they also possess that given record.
However, the single hub databases only share the bibliographic description of the record, thus keeping total autonomy regarding the possibility of adding further information (such as the local position of a book, purchasing orders, more specific search keys, etc.). Libraries also have full autonomy as to organizational choices and hardware and software investments.