Modern humanities

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES Principal aims: The students will learn the scientific principles that regulate the organization and management of libraries and the possibility of using book collections. Three-quarters of the course will be devoted to analysing the theoretical methodologies and principles of the Library Science and to improve the students’ critical abilities in that field. The remaining lessons will be devoted to practice exercises, with the aim of developing the student’s ability of consulting OPACs and bibliographic databases and visiting libraries in Rome. Specific aims: A. Knowledge and understanding. To acquire knowledge and understanding about the methodological foundations of Library Science, and to know the present set of rules concerning the Italian public libraries and their services, such as the reference services, the lending services, e-Books, and digital lending. To know and understand digital resources, such as e-Journals, and different kinds of digital libraries, among others the Biblioteca digitale italiana and the Europeana portal, by way of practical exercises in the course of lessons. To know and understand the Open access scientific communication methodology. B. Applying knowledge and understanding. To acquire knowledge and understanding the developments originated by the use of new technologies in libraries. At the end of this course, students will also be able to make bibliographical search consulting the Italian SBN OPAC and to find digital objects in the Biblioteca digitale italiana, using the MIC Internetculturale gateway. C. Making judgments. Because of the guided visits to libraries in Rome and to the Sapienza DigiLab laboratories, students will be able to evaluate the differences among the services offered by the different kinds of libraries.