Available data about southern Italian public libraries are few and not uniform; however, this situation
is known to be structurally weak and far from service levels of central and northern areas
of the country. The article analyzes statistics and recent studies about libraries and emphasizes
the positive and negative role played by southern regions. The result is that in southern public
libraries, too often, the lack of legislative and political attention causes missed investments in
suitable structures and staff training and the citizens have huge difficulties to benefit from least
levels of library services
