Librarians into the mirror: meet the others to recognize ourselves

Abstract

The paper revolves around the key issues of ‘multiplicity’ and ‘exchange’. Multiple are the training courses to become a librarian, and multiple are the disciplines involved, but the traditional skills of cataloguing, classifying and organizing resources are improved by historical and philological approaches: cataloging can thus become an opportunity for study and discovery. Multiple are the library resources, as well as the international library and cultural institutions networks connecting people who deal with cultural heritage. Several huge metadata sharing projects (HPB, CERL Thesaurus, Europeana) meet different librarians’ information needs, and some of them are dedicated to specific resources, such as incunabula (ISTC, GW, Text-Inc). Finally, the recent interest of libraries in Wikipedia (GLAM projects, #1Lib1Ref) proves that libraries are more and more interested in collaborating in non-traditional frameworks too.
Thanks to the case study of the BEIC digital library, the authors show how participation in networks fosters perspective thinking: when the daily routine involves discussion and cooperation, it’s easier to get acknowledgment and visibility.