Information Access, Document Delivery and Resource Sharing in Earth-Science Libraries: the Italian Project NILDE

The National Research Council (CNR) Bologna Research Area Library is a multidisciplinary scientific library serving a community of about 1.500 local and remote users among researchers staff, PhD, undergraduate students and visiting scientists. The Library became operative in 1997, progressively integrating the existing resources of the Institutes belonging to the Research Area thus reducing costs whilst increasing the quantity and quality of advanced library services, such as: access to over 6.000 online journals, access to specialised bibliographical databases, document delivery, etc... Library online collections cover, among the Earth Sciences, the fields of Geology, Ocenography, Climatology, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences. Among library services, the Document Delivery Service allows rapid supply of scientific documents, books, theses and other documents not owned by the Library through Inter-Library loan and exchange or purchase. This service is for internal users. On the other side, the Library offers rapid and comprehensive document supply and interlibrary loan to other Italian libraries from its extensive collection. Document Delivery (DD) plays an important role in Italian research and university libraries. The main Internet resources for Document Delivery and Resource Sharing are the Archivio Collettivo Nazionale dei Periodici (ACNP, the collective serials Italian catalogue), the Sistema Bibliotecario Nazionale Catalogue (SBN) and the MetaOpac Azalai Italiano (MAI). In 1999 the Library started a project aiming at the development of an Internet-based Document Delivery Service, in order to: - exploit the new Internet technologies; - promote cooperation among CNR and Italian university libraries; - reduce service costs; - achieve short turnaround times and higher user satisfaction. The resulting system, NILDE (Network Inter-Library Document Exchange), is a web based software for libraries and end-users, that allows libraries to manage the entire work-flow of document delivery activities. The main advantages for libraries are the provision of synthetic and analytical statistics, provision of performance indicators such as ?fill-rate? and ?turn-around time?, and support for secure electronic delivery via Internet by means of a file-uploading/web-server. The main advantages for end-users are the possibility to forward a document delivery request to their library from any OpenURL-compliant bibliographical database (e.g. Web of Science, Scopus, Scifinder, PubMed, CSA Illumina and SFX platforms) and to check the status of their requests. NILDE is presently used by more than 500 Italian libraries and counts about 3.000 registered end-users. It has allowed to build up a large library network, based on cooperation, resource sharing and a degree of standard quality of service and fair behaviours. Technical-scientific and bio-medical libraries represent the core of the NILDE network, performing more than 80% of the total number of document exchanges. The most recent progress and implementation of the NILDE project and software will be presented. We will also focus on the important contribution made by earth-science libraries to the NILDE network and how it will be possible to increase it, by actively involving even more libraries and complying with the user-needs of earth-scientists

NILDE (Network Inter Library Document Exchange): An Italian Document Delivery System

This poster presents "NILDE", a Document Delivery system sup- porting the exchange of documents via Internet. The system has been carried out by the Central Library of the National Research Council of Bologna (Italy) in order to make use of a new Internet technology, to promote a cooperation be- tween the Italian University libraries and Research libraries, and to achieve short turnaround times in satisfying DD requests. The Arcetri Astrophysical Obser- vatory Library was the first astronomical library to join the NILDE project from its earliest days, during year 2002. Many were the reasons for this choice: au- tomation of the DD processes, security and reliability of the network, creation of usage statistics and reports, reduction of DD System management costs and so on. This work describes the benefits of NILDE and discusses the role of an organized Document Delivery system as an important tool to cope with the hard rules of the editorial market

DNA Barcoding as a tool for Zoological Taxonomy: Identification of bony fish in the Mediterranean Sea

The description of all the species present in nature is a vast task to be fulfilled by using the classical approach of morphological description of the organisms. In recent years, the traditional taxonomy, based primarily on identification keys of species, has shown a number of limitations in the use of the distinctive features in many animal taxa and inconsistencies with the genetic data. Furthermore, the increasing need to get a true estimate of biodiversity has led Zoological Taxonomy to seek new approaches and methodologies to support the traditional methods. The classification procedure has added modern criteriasuch as the evolutionary relationships and the genetic, biochemical and morphological characteristics of the organisms.Until now the Linnean binomial was the only abbreviated code associated with the description of the morphology of a species. The new technologies aim to achieve a short nucleotide sequence of the DNA to be used as an unique and solely label for a particular species, a specific genetic barcode. For both morphological and genetic approaches, skills and experience are required. Taxonomy is one of zoological disciplines that has been benefited from the achievements reached by modern molecular biotechnology. Using a molecular approach it is possible to identify cryptic species, to establish a family relationship between species and their membership of taxonomic categories or to reconstruct the evolutionary history of a taxon

Sicily in Transition : Interim report of investigations at Castronovo di Sicilia 2016

La città di Castronovo di Sicilia (PA) e i suoi dintorni sono attualmente oggetto di ricerche archeologiche condotte dalle università di York, Roma e Lecce in collaborazione con la Soprintendenza per i Beni culturali e ambientali di Palermo e con il sostegno del Comune di Castronovo. Quattro diversi insediamenti sono stati indagati per mezzo di prospezioni e scavi. Sul Monte Kassar, interpretabile, allo stato attuale delle ricerche, come una fortezza bizantina dell’ VIII–IX secolo, nel 2015 sono state individuate strutture con funzione abitativa all’interno e in appoggio alle fortificazioni, mentre nel 2016 sono stati scavati i resti di una “casaforte” (la cosiddetta “casermetta"). Sul Colle San Vitale, i ruderi delle strutture medievali ancora in piedi sono stati oggetto di una prospezione di alta precisione, come anche la città vecchia di Castronovo, dove anche sono stati individuate e cartografate le acque sotterranee e un sistema di irrigazione. Infine, a Casale San Pietro, nella pianura vicino a Castronovo e sulle rive del fiume Platani, un insediamento esteso di epoca tardoromana e bizantina (orientativamente dei secoli V–VII secolo) è stato parzialmente identificato attraverso prospezioni geofisiche, raccolte di superficie e sondaggi. Nel 2015 e 2016 è stato possibile dimostrare in un’area di scavo (Int 5) che l’insediamento di epoca bizantina (la cosiddetta agro-town) è stato rioccupato da uno di epoca islamica e normanna (IX–XII secolo). L’attuale campagna di ricerche sul Medioevo nel Comune di Castronovo di Sicilia (PA) è stata avviata nel 2014 e proseguita nel 2015. Nel corso del 2016, queste indagini hanno assunto un ruolo centrale nel progetto più ampio finanziato dall’European Research Council (SICTRANSIT). L’obiettivo centrale di questo progetto è di comprendere il carattere delle trasformazioni economiche, ambientali e sociali dell’intera Sicilia tra il VI e il XIII secolo . La relazione che segue presenta i risultati ottenuti nel 2016 a Castronovo nei quattro insediamenti principali e una breve descrizione delle ricerche in corso sulla ceramica, la fauna, e i reperti particolari effettuata dai responsabili delle loro analisi. Infine, si conclude con una valutazione del significato della campagna del 2016 e uno sguardo alle prossime tappe del progetto

Strategies and Alliances into Action to Improve National Collaboration

The Italian NILDE network of libraries continues to grow through the use of the NILDE system and currently comprises more than 600 Italian librarians and about 10.000 registered end-users.The system allows to daily manage and to record all the Inter-Library-Loan (ILL) operations, with a high national coverage. This paper presents the NILDE network governance and evolution and the strategies that have been put into action to improve collaboration in resource sharing among the participants. These strategies include: − release of best practices and worst practices; − activities to promote the knowledge about the network; − cooperation with the Italian national catalogs and consortia; − data analysis about ILL and its performance, related to: turn around time, reciprocity factor, requested/supplied documents imbalance analysis, analysis of ILL requested serial titles and their relationship with consortial e-only acquisitions. The availability of such a high volume of ILL data has allowed for the first time to analyze the trends and gaps of ILL and to help future cooperative acquisitions planning

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative: the NILDE case study in the frame of Italian experiences

NILDE (Network for Inter-Library Document Exchange) is born at the CNR Bologna Research Area Library to provide an effective answer to the needs of libraries in order to guarantee information accessibility, sharing resources through Inter Library Loan (ILL) of returnable and non-returnable items (books and journal articles)

Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus, 1758): technical report about extraction and recognition of the digestive tract contents in early stages of the life cycle

The study of ichthyio-plankton stages and its relations with the environment and other organisms is therefore crucial for a correct use of fishery resources. In this context, the extraction and the analysis of the content of the digestive tract, is a key method for the identification of the diet in early larval stages, the determination of the resources they rely on and possibly a comparison with the diet of other species. Additionally this approach could be useful in determination on occurrence of species competition. This technique is preceded by the analysis of morphometric data (Blackith & Reyment, 1971; Marcus, 1990), that is the acquisition of quantitative variables measured from the morphology of the object of study. They are linear distances, count, angles and ratios. The subsequent application of multivariate statistical methods, aims to quantify the changes in morphological measures between and within groups, relating them to the type and size of prey and evaluate if some changes appear in food choices along the larvae growth

Signals from the deep-sea: Genetic structure, morphometric analysis, and ecological implications of Cyclothone braueri (Pisces, Gonostomatidae) early life stages in the Central Mediterranean Sea

Cyclothone braueri (Stomiiformes, Gonostomatidae) is a widely distributed fish inhabiting the mesopelagic zone of marine tropical and temperate waters. Constituting one of the largest biomasses of the ocean, C. braueri is a key element in most of the ecological processes occurring in the twilight layer. We focused on the ecological processes linked to early life stages in relation to marine pelagic environmental drivers (temperature, salinity, food availability and geostrophic currents) considering different regions of the Central Mediterranean Sea. A multivariate morphometric analysis was carried out using six parameters with the aim of discerning different larval morphotypes, while a fragment of 367 bp representing the 12S ribosomal RNA gene was used to perform molecular analyses aimed at determining the intraspecific genetic variability. Analysis highlighted two geographically distinct morphotypes not genetically discernible and related to the different nutritional conditions due to spatial heterogeneities in terms of temperature and food availability. The body depth (BD) emerged as an appropriate morphometric parameter to detect the larval condition in this species. Molecular analysis highlighted a moderate genetic divergence in the fish population, showing the recurrence of two phylogroups not geographically separated

Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus, 1758) e Sardinella aurita (Valenciennes, 1847): rapporto tecnico sulla metodologia di acquisizione di dati morfometrici dei primi stadi di sviluppo del ciclo vitale

Le acciughe (Engraulis encrasicolus, Linnaeus, 1758) e le alacce (Sardinella aurita, Valenciennes, 1847) sono piccoli pesci pelagici appartenenti rispettivamente alle famiglie degli Engraulidae e dei Clupeidae. Esse sono tra le più importanti risorse alieutiche in molte regioni del Mar Mediterraneo. Dai dati IREPA del 2009, è emerso che In Italia, la pesca di Engraulis encrasicolus ha rappresentano in media il 26% circa del pescato totale. La Sardinella aurita risulta essere un importante risorsa ittica commerciale soprattutto per i Paesi nordafricani che si affacciano sul Mediterraneo. Inoltre a partire dagli anni 90, il suo sfruttamento è in continuo aumento (National Statistical Service of Hellas, 1990-2002) per via del suo coinvolgimento nelle metodologie di conservazione degli alimenti e come esca per le redditizie attività di pesca del tonno e del pesce spada (Tsikliras, 2006). I programmi di monitoraggio di queste specie hanno evidenziato fluttuazioni inter-annuali di biomassa molto pronunciate (Cergole et al., 2002; Cingolani, 2004). Le cause di queste oscillazioni possono essere molteplici e legate a fattori di natura antropica, ad esempio l’elevato sforzo di pesca, e a fattori naturali (Borjia et al., 1996). In particolare, le dinamiche biologiche ed ambientali che influenzano la sopravvivenza dei primi stadi di vita di queste specie e il successivo reclutamento, possono essere di fondamentale importanza nel determinare le contrazioni e gli incrementi annuali dello stock adulto (Thikonova et al., 2000; James et al., 2003; Cuttitta et al., 2003, 2006). Inoltre la conoscenza della biologia riproduttiva di tali specie non può esimersi dal comprendere se esistono diversi gruppi parentali nell’area dove incide lo sforzo di pesca e di come essi siano distribuiti spazialmente, per far si che lo sforzo di pesca sia quanto più possibile distribuito equamente. Lo studio delle fasi ittioplanctoniche e delle sue relazioni con l’ambiente e gli altri organismi, risulta quindi di primaria importanza nell’ambito delle conoscenze necessarie per il corretto sfruttamento delle risorse alieutiche. In questo contesto l’acquisizione e l’analisi dei dati morfometrici rappresenta una delle metodologie fondamentali per la caratterizzazione dimensionale e per la valutazione eventuali differenze morfologiche presenti in larve provenienti da diverse zone dell’area di studio