The role of libraries and transformations in scientific communication

Abstract

Library institutes that have traditionally acted in support of researchers, placing sources and instruments for research at their disposal, but the transformations underway in scientific communication gave meant that the roles of those who mediate between documents and their contents and users––such as the librarian––have been blurred until they are practically unrecognisable. There is a concrete risk that this could end in a kind of ‘total dismediation’. Today, alongside their traditional roles, scientific libraries and institutions also have new missions, such as the services of the digital library or the development of open access models of dissemination, as well as training users in the rational use of new instruments.