Library utopia and librarian’s mission

Abstract

«Libraries are physically determined places and firmly planted in a precise context» but at the same time they are «pervaded by a very strong symbolic charge, which transcends reality». Starting from Giovanni Solimine’s words attesting an oscillation between reality and utopia, this article reflects on what libraries and librarians are and should do today. First of all, libraries should devote themselves to their functions that other institutions do not know and cannot perform: to ensure the collection and conservation as complete as possible of what has been produced and to document human knowledge development, and, therefore, organize information in complete and technically adequate catalogs and prepare digitization plans. But libraries are also asked to reflect again on books, reading and education which are the most immediate and pertinent horizon. Without their values, without utopia, without the mission of progress, of personal and cultural growth but also of support for social change, libraries are destined to die of uselessness and misunderstanding.