It's a beautiful book that describe the italian libraries situation catched in 2009 and before. Step by step it describe the evolution in synthesis from birth in middle ages to now with some photographs. Now the legislation is explained very well and so on the possible future goals.
Varius numeric informations is joining to an ample analysis of distribution of the libraries.
One chapter is dedicated to new frontiers entitled as "Digital libraries" that dig deep into projects from Italy to Europe as SBN, Minerva & Micheal (where I met www.repec.or k & http://roar.eprints.org/ http://www.ssrn.com/ a wealth of knowledge).
This book was a gift obtained from MIBAC to "Più libri più liberi" exhibition held in Rome (4/8 december 2010) is in english and edited by "Mibac - Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali", "Cepell - Centro per il libro e la lettura", "AIB - associazione italiana biblioteche".