Abstract

European Union, Italian Government, and Italian school initiatives have identified school libraries as a fundamental component of the education strategy for individual acquisition of the skills and abilities necessary for full development as a productive person in a society that is now characterized by the digital divide. This article summarizes these initiatives and, in particular, the status of library services in schools, which are characterized by numerous weak areas and a few strong points, as well as personnel who are now in many cases hired only on a temporary basis in various scholastic structures and who are even insensitive to the library «issue».