La Biblioteca del Conservatorio “L. D’Annunzio”: prima ricostruzione e prospettive future

This contribution retraces the fundamental phases of the establishment of the Library, since the appearance of its original core in 1933, through the fights of World War II that caused its dispersion, up to present days. Starting from its founding, the Library, besides complying with its own training vocation by supporting teaching activity and artistic production, has also succeeded in fostering musical identity related to the area where it springs from.
The essay highlights how, through promotion, research and divulgation of musical culture objectives assigned to Conservatories by the Reform Act (Art. 33 Act 508/1999), the latter has progressively taken on the role of “research infrastructure” thanks to an activity of revival, cataloguing and digitalization of musical heritage, carried out through measures granting widespread access to documentary abundance, enhancing both development and updating of collections, subscription to paper and online bibliographic resources as well as the safeguard and promotion of one’s own collections with particular attention to special collections. Precisely the latter shows the role that an academic library can assume in relation to the functions expected by the Third Mission, that is to say, the totality of activities with which Institutions of Advanced Courses interact with the civil community, by becoming a means of conveying the educational, social and cultural “common good” priority.