Changes in Rare Books Librarianship: new opportunities for a user-oriented and cooperative approach

Abstract

Topic of the literature review is twofold: rare books librarianship (and librarians), and cooperation and its use in librarianship. The context focused is the management of rare books and special collections in academic libraries in Italy and in the international arena. The aim of the literature review is to build the foundation for a research about the present critical issues on Rare Books Librarianship in Academic libraries in term of user-oriented services and new opportunities for cooperation. Through a survey of the literature of last years, the researcher tries to give answers to questions about rare books librarians and librarianship most frequent topics related, librarians attitudes towards users (and changes if any), specific training, users' perspective about cooperation its meanings, and use; as tool to reach new results and discover unexplored opportunities in a field where individualism and professional jealousy seem to be prevailing.