Democratising Libraries : Virginia Carini Dainotti and Public Librarianship in Italy

Sammanfattning

This master’s thesis is a case study investigating the career and ideology of Virginia Carini Dainotti, a librarian working in twentieth-century Italy who played a significant role in Italian librarianship. This study has been carried out through textual analysis and is primarily based on the material written by Carini Dainotti herself, including both articles and monographs. These documents were extensively used to understand her contribution to the establishment of the American public library model in Italy. This master’s thesis finds that Virginia Carini Dainotti has played a significant role in the Italian library field. Her particular attention to the needs of young adults and adults, her openness to international experiences and her view of the public library as a socio-educational tool marked her out as an innovator compared to the 20th-century Italian state of the field.