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LIBRARY SERVICES NETWORK
PROVINCE OF BRESCIA
Italy

The Problem

To respond to the logical of innovation, Province of Brescia always puts at the base of its plans the improvement of e-government policies, the development of innovative solutions in line with the national and european directions, and the spread of better online high-quality services to its citizens.

Among its main projects, the LIBRARY SERVICES NETWORK (RBB–RETE BIBLIOTECARIA BRESCIANA) is certainly one of the best example of how Province of Brescia promotes the library cooperation, rationalizing the management and organization of the territorial library services.
The main aims of Province of Brescia were to improve the development of library networks, the coordination of the activities between local libraries and the delivery of services using the more advanced information technologies, giving at the same time to the citizens a modern and innovative service of public reading in their territory.

Thanks to a new portal – http://rbb.provincia.brescia.it – Province of Brescia reached the ambitious objective to create a "virtual library", thanks to the automation of the services, to the online librarian loan and to the coordination and participation of all the subjects involved, which create at the same time a “virtual community” of professional librarians.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The value of RBB is the proposal of a new shareable organizational model, based on aggregative management solutions.
Today more than 2.500.000 bibliographic records have been catalogued in the OPAC - Online Public Access Catalogue. It contains about 500.000 cataloguing record concerning all the patrimony of RBB and of some libraries from the province of Cremona. Thanks to OPAC it is possibile to obtain the location of more than 2.500.000 documents such as books, audio and video recording and cd-rom.

RBB aims to:
- connect all the libraries in a unique value-added network;
- create a unique database, in which all the bibliographical data of the listed patrimoni are recoverable and which constitutes the base of a shared system for the management of the single services;
- offer to all the libraries the service of cataloguing of their patrimoni, following the principles of inexpensiveness and uniformity;
- adopt uniform and homegeneous standards, which are internationally recognized and sharable, and whose application is is guaranteed from a little group of specialized operators;
- lift the librarians from the burden of the cataloguing, favoring them in their activity of promotion the reading and the offer of dynamic and efficient informative services;
- offer useful tools of bibliographical navigation both to the operators and to the consumers;
- offer to the libraries a modern tool of management and control of the local service;
- automatize the loan among the libraries;
- open the service to the citizen through Internet.

RBB has changed not only the organizational and management structure of the library system, but also the conceptual approach of the people directly involved in the project (users and operators), who fully benefited from it.
Actually the new portal allows the users to benefit of some services: they can find different information about a book (for instance localizing a book, knowing if it is available or on loan, making a reservation…), or they can be updated about what happens in all the libraries of the Province. At the same time the operators have a centralized management instrument, which they can use through the access in a reserved area containing documents and information usefull to their work.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
RBB was proposed by the Province of Brescia and since the beginning it has been conceived like a service for the libraries and for the citizens. The Province of Brescia supports libraries through the adoption of a centralized cataloguing standards, which are internationally admitted and shared, establishing a unique database, and creates a computer-based interlibrary loan.

Today the subjects involved in the project are:
- Province of Brescia (Library Office and Information and Technology Center)
- 7 intermunicipal librarian systems of province of Brescia
- 2 intermunicipal librarian systems of province of Cremona
- more than 230 public libraries
- 8 private libraries
- 3 special funds
- 1 multimedia library

The people involved in the project are:
- Library Offices of the provinces
- Information and Technology Centers of the provinces
- Directors and coordinators of the librarian systems
- Librarians
- Cataloguers
- Information and Technology referents
- Other dealers

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The strategy of RBB is based on the principles of rationality and efficiency.
RBB is directed toward reducing and eliminating some organization and management passages and its priority is to provide citizens with a modern and efficient access of library services.
Thanks to the use of two different software, the catalogue can be easily managed and consulted both by the librarians and the users. In order to create and update the catalogue, the software allows to insert a document only once; then the same document is available for all.
The organizational structure has been developed in a pyramidal optic: the head of the project is Province of Brescia, that has a lot of coordination’s responsibilities at a systemic level (for example, selection of the library system’s organizational requirements, cataloguing office management, librarian training). There is a geographical network that links the peripheral operational centres (CO) to the central cataloguing database (CCP) and to the provincial Intranet.

This complex type of organization implicates a continuous professional training and updating for all the subjects involved, which have to transmit their skills to all the others librarians spread all over the territory.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
RBB has been achieved since 1988 with an analogical system, then it has improved more and more. In 1997 RBB changed the software: from a mainframe software to a server one.
From 1999 the joint catalogue OPAC is available online.
In 2001 Province of Cremona joint the project with 50 public libraries.
After an e-government testing project, in 2003 the technological structure has been completely centralized and provided with internet connection.
From 2004 new and advanced library services are available for the citizenship via web.
Moreover in these years it has been begun the cataloguing of multimedia works.

This year Province of Brescia has developed a new portal – http://rbb.provincia.brescia.it – which can be considered as the first tentative to spread the services of RBB through a multichannel way.
The main objective of Province of Brescia is to offer the services of RBB to a greater number of citizens, not only through the web, but using its new channels (first of all through Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), but also through its new web-site or its web-tv).

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main obstacles encountered were to optimize resources and to manage the integration and cooperation between all the partners involved, especially the libraries, which often didn’t have the innovative technologies needed for the project or were not able to use them.
In order to overcome this problem, Province of Brescia created a plan including economical support for the libraries, economical and technical advice, professional training, reading promotion, service measurement, organization and management of the centralized services, provincial archives.

Besides thanks to its Innovation Area, Province of Brescia reached to improve its project, using innovative technologies and at the same time reducing costs through a centralized system.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Province of Brescia decided to realize only concrete and achievable solutions, concentrating its efforts in a really sustainable project and focusing on a correct allocation of all the available resources (means, people and money).
The method used by the Province of Brescia is more economical and rational because it is managed
in a centralized way. Thanks to central cataloguing database, the librarians don’t have to take care about cataloguing, which is made at central level and then automated. In this way costs are considerably reduced.
The development of RBB was granted by the financial and effective commitment of Province of Brescia: it provides the technical assistance to the overall system and the maintenance and updating of the software.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The project is characterized by two main features: sustainability and multipliability. All the activities of the project have been carefully analyzed in order to invest all the available resources into concrete objectives.
Besides, the entire project could be easily transferred to every other bodies dealing with similar problems and aims, especially regions, provinces and municipalities.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The new information technologies have permitted the development and the spreading of the library network of Brescia, improving the interoperability of the project born in 1988 and the delivery of its services.
Nevertheless, the technology is not enough, the people have to learn a new system of working. For this reason RBB has developed also a service of training for librarians, information operators and managers involved. In this way the main problem in implementing this library network has been overcome.
Through the developd of RBB, Province of Brescia had learned how to give innovative and effective solutions in order to answer the needs of its main stakeholders.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   PROVINCE OF BRESCIA
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   RAFFAELE GARERI
Title:   CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AND HEAD OF INNOVATION  
Telephone/ Fax:   0039 30 3748506
Institution's / Project's Website:   0039 30 3749679
E-mail:   fforesti@provincia.bs.it  
Address:   CRYSTAL PALACE, VIA CEFALONIA 70
Postal Code:   25124
City:   BRESCIA
State/Province:  
Country:   Italy

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