A topic map for the profession: the Atlas of R. David Lankes

Abstract

The Atlas of New Librarianship is more about librarians than about libraries. According to Lankes communities are the veritable collections that librarians must develop and preserve over time, and librarians should embrace a worldview focused on people rather than on artifacts. Lankes' work is both stimulating and controversial, sometimes persuasive, sometimes defective and contradictory, but surely should be taken into serious consideration by Italian academic and professional community – because «not choosing to take part into the conversation about the future of librarianship you abdicate the chance to shape that future».