ATG Interviews Barbara Casalini President, Casalini Libri by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain) <gilsont@cofc.edu> and Katina Strauch (Editor, Against the Grain) <kstrauch@comcast.net> ATG: Barbara, some of our readers may not be familiar with Casalini Libri. Can you tell us a little bit about the company? What are the main services Casalini Libri provides to libraries and publishers? What do you see as the company key mission? BC: The company was an idea of my father’s. While visiting the U.S. on business in the late 1950s, he became conscious that there was little (and unreliable or untimely) information available on Italian publications, and no real supply structure for the diffusion of Italian titles abroad. He established Casalini Libri as an information and supply service for titles that were not easily found, initially working with the Library of Congress and progressively with more and more libraries and institutions. We have always tried to respond to the needs of our customers and now offer many services aimed at assisting libraries and publishers, from approval selections to subscription management and the Torrossa digital library. Although our customer base and services have widened considerably over the past 60 years, I would say that the importance of providing prompt and high quality bibliographic information to libraries and of supporting the diffusion of Italian culture and learning worldwide have remained at the core of all of our activities. Of course, it is not just Italian culture that we wish to promote, but original language research from across Europe. This is reflected first in our investment in creating the same infrastructure for the provision of Spanish, Portuguese and French titles over the last fifteen years and — just last month — in our participation in the acquisition of the two Dutch companies, Erasmus and Houtschild. In creating synergy with these companies with whom we share a single vision, we aim to offer the very best services to the Library world, not simply by strengthening our coverage and providing a more efficient use of technological resources, but by striving to maintain the excellent customer service for which we are known. ATG: The world of libraries and scholarly publishing has changed dra 40 Against the Grain / June 2020
matically since your father founded Casalini Libri in 1958. How has the company kept pace with the rapidly changing market? What would you say are the key factors that have enabled Casalini Libri to thrive? BC: I would say that the key has been our constant collaboration with both publishers and libraries and the confidence we have received from both sectors, not only in the trust libraries have placed in us to source and select quality material for them, but also publishers in our ability to provide a technological support and widen the reach of their publications. As I said, it has always been very important for us to listen to the emerging needs of our customers and respond with services that offer solutions to those needs. ATG: One of the cornerstones of your services to libraries and publishers appears to be the ilibri Casalini Bibliographical Database. Can you tell us about that? What is so unique about the database? BC: We are indeed very proud of the ilibri database as it is the main showcase for our dedication to providing quality bibliographic information. We carefully select the new publications that fit the interests and quality required by academic and research libraries in order to create detailed bibliographic descriptions for our customers. All of the bibliographic data that we produce is included in our online
database, making it a very specialised resource for librarians. It’s also worth mentioning that in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, it is still very often not easy to acquire information about publications or rely completely on national bibliographies. The ilibri database works to fill those gaps in information. What’s more, the database is integrated with our other systems, meaning that librarians can follow a single, linear and straightforward workflow, from viewing our new title suggestions to creating and editing their selections, sending orders and checking on their status, to finding a complete archive of all of the invoices connected with their orders. ATG: Another key component of your offerings is the Torrossa digital library. Can you describe what it provides libraries? Does it work with the ilibri® Casalini Bibliographical Database to offer integrated services? BC: Torrossa was born in its first incarnation in 2000 as a project to explore the potential of digital publishing. As the initial digital library of Italian scholarly titles grew steadily and was joined by a second digital collection of academic titles from Spain, we decided to unite the two resources in a single website, which takes its name from our historic headquarters in Fiesole. Twenty years on and we’re preparing to publish an enhanced version of the site, which by now includes digital content from over 280 highly respected HSS publishers from Italy, Spain and a variety of other countries. The main benefits of Torrossa for libraries include the possibility to reach such a wide offering of digital publications from a single access point and manage all the content under a single licence. As with print, we try to give libraries the freedom and tools to decide how to put their collections together. So in addition to the recommended collections of titles selected by our bibliographers, we also offer the possibility to pick and choose collections or single titles, provide tools and services such as PDA and Approval selections, and have integrated all of our continued on page 41
<http://www.against-the-grain.com>
