Being the largest and one of the more important libraries in the world, the Vatican Library had also moved with the times and provides now services to virtual audiences that require access to library material in digital format.
The Vatican library counts with a large IT department responsible to operate and advance Client/Server library system as well as maintaining a Data/Network infrastructure where digital content is stored and made available to users either on site or connecting via Internet.
The creation and supporting of “The Vatican Virtual Library” is a complex task that requires the coordination of all the automated services within the Library, with special reference to bibliographical catalogues, search engines and the relationship between descriptive data and digital resources. All of these tasks are responsibility of the IT department which also oversees the management of the authority control archives, determining the form of names, titles and subjects in the catalogues of printed books, of coins and medals, of manuscripts and of archival materials. In order to comply with standard cataloguing conventions, the IT department also develops the encoding of all data into the different cataloguing formats (MARC21, XML, and Dublin Core) and is responsible for the training of all library personnel that operates the automated systems.
Another very important role of the Vatican “virtual library team” is to participate in international efforts to develop bibliographical standards and cataloguing norms for the digital environment, which include amongst others the:
· InForMA System: Management of data concerning manuscripts and archival materials with links to digital images.
· Pergamon RFID System: "Electronic Verification of Book Holdings"
· Bookline System (Z39.50 Web OPAC)
o Management of catalogue data for public access
o Maintenance of the application for the MARC21 visualization formats on the web
o Creation of links between bibliographical descriptions and external multimedia resources (image files, URL's, etc.).
From the “user experience” perspective, the “Vatican Library Website” is very intuitive and easy to navigate, with a very “rich in information” Home Page that contains the most common tasks and information a typical visitor will need, and from where users are also directed to other relevant sections on the website.
The main pane in the Home Page a section of news and newsletter as well as events that are planned or currently taking place. From the Website Menu bar, a visitor can also access other sections not accessible from the Home page, but a user may also be interested to visit such as the Library History and Special Collections or the General Online Catalogue page that can be accessed on the menu bar through the “Catalogue – Printed Book Collections”
A large amount of information is restricted to visitors and the Library encourages the registration to access the “Private Area” which is not opened to everybody and instead users are assessed on merits and needs in order to determine if access to library material can be granted.
Overall I was well impress with the website format, although I would have expected that more languages were supported on the website which at the moment is only available in English and Italian.
In my opinion I think the Library is doing its work in meeting the needs of the new generations of computer savvy users that more and more are demanding digital content, which for a library holding ancient material many centuries old is not a trivial task. On the other hand, moving towards an “digital/virtual library” is a very pressing need and not having it will pose the risk of becoming irrelevant and obsolete, as many years from now users will not be interested in reading material that is not easily available or accessible via an electronic method.
Bibliography;
The Vatican Library in the Twenty First Century, The New Yorker, viewed on 24 September 2011,
The Vatican Library goes digital, National Catholic Reporter, viewed on 25 September 2011, http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/vatican-library-goes-digital
IT Center and Services, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (The Vatican Library), viewed on 25 September 2011, http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=ufficio_ced
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