From Paper to Digital

One of ICTP's most beloved spaces, its Library, is undergoing an important upgrade in both its physical space and its catalogue system.
 
Thanks to generous funding from an anonymous donor, the Library has begun the task of digitising its book collection; once digitised, the materials are being shipped to Bookfarm, an antiquarian bookshop in Germany that promotes "A Second Life for Books". So far, approximately 7,000 Springer monographs have been digitised, removed from the Library, and are now on their way to a second life. The books remain a part of ICTP's permanent collection, but as digital resources. 
 
In addition, some 1,200 linear meters of print journals are now available in electronic form through the library’s licenses or, in a few cases, can be retrieved via document delivery within 24 hours. The freed-up library space will be repurposed to create new workspaces for the scientific community in the future.
 
Over the past few years the Library has steadily grown its digital resources. The collections now comprise approximately 56,000 print books and more than 4,400 current electronic periodicals, and about 30 which are only received in print. Catalogued e-books are over 52,000 and growing. Several thousand digital documents of different types are in the archives.
 
Eva Babonich, head of the ICTP Library team, took the time to discuss the library modernisation project and what this means for our scientists.
 
Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on in the Library?
 
These shelves were filled mainly with print journals and some monographs. The print journals here were really underused because we already had all of these in digital form. It's much more convenient for the scientific community to just download these remotely. The print material was occupying a lot of space without being really used: there was more than one kilometer of print journals. 
 
We received a very generous donation from an anonymous private donor for our “going digital” project, and we were able to replace large parts of the Springer book collection with digital versions. Every monograph we gave away was replaced with an electronic version. All the content is here, and the size of the collection has tripled. We didn't lose anything, just changed the format, and made it accessible to the ICTP global community. That was one of our main aims.
 
When I arrived at ICTP, the library was quite an enclosed space; like an island. But, of course, our scientific community is everywhere around the globe. We want a library that is accessible to the whole community. I think we have already achieved this goal, as only last year, there were 133,000 downloads from our eBook collection. This means the scientific community really uses our services. Also, when you download a book from the ICTP library, you can keep it forever. This can help people build their own libraries, which is very important in underprivileged scientific communities where people sometimes cannot afford to buy collections at their own institutions.
 
How is the library changing?
 
We really want to modernize the whole space. It currently has only one large quiet zone, but ICTP is all about collaboration: working together, exchange, meeting people. Our community is very diverse, with different types of user groups. We have faculty, diploma students, associates, visitors, and postdocs here. Some are here during the whole year, others for days or months. Why not create a landscape made of different workspaces? We looked at the different work activities of scientists - reading, writing a paper, Zoom calls, sending emails, discussions in bigger and smaller groups - with the aim of creating an ecosystem made of different work settings. 
 
What will this look like?
 
We’re going to create a reading room for quiet, focused work; a space that is a little louder and open for small groups and collaborations; a service desk area; and a very open, flexible, and dynamic area where scientists can exchange ideas. We will have blackboards, whiteboards, and glass boards there, so groups can informally get together, discuss problems and really collaborate and interact over a coffee, because this area will be shielded from the other quieter library zones.
 
There will be small and large meeting rooms, work lounges, and booths where you can make a zoom call. We’ll also provide a modern presentation of our print collection; we want to present the pearls of every research field, books that are worth coming to the physical Library space.
 
It sounds like you're giving everyone a bit of everything.
 
This is the idea! We're here to serve the whole scientific community and meet their needs as much as possible.
 
 
 

The Library Project is supported by a public-private partnership – one of the fundraising models ICTP is utilizing to increase and diversify contributed revenue and ensure the Centre's future sustainability.
 
So far, two generous individual donors have come forward with support. The anonymous donor for Going Digital as mentioned above, and ICTP Development Advisory Board Chair Ashvin Chhabra and Daniela Bonafede-Chhabra for the design and renovation of the interior library space. These contributions join significant support already received from the Italian government for infrastructure works. ICTP is still seeking donations to complete this important project with the most state-of-the-art equipment and furnishings. For information on how to support the Library, please contact Amy Buchan Baldonieri or Sabrina Ferami at advancement@ictp.it.