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Multimedia information retrieval has become an important issue in library work, particularly since users can have access to the Internet both at their homes and in libraries. Besides bibliographic information, pictorial resources are nowadays requested to meet the new and demanding users' needs. Research on different aspects of multimedia information retrieval can improve practice in different ways and findings can be beneficial to many professionals: cataloguers, indexers, reference librarians, Web designers, chief librarians, and administrators. This paper presents a critical account of the developments in multimedia information retrieval research and practice in Italy in the last ten years. The paper also tries to determine if dissemination of research findings has been critical in establishing new approaches to practice. The study examined the LIS sector, analysing projects through relevant publications and implementations, as well as computer science and other disciplines, to trace future developments and trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a survey of the academic staff of the Faculties of Economics and Law of the University of Brescia, Italy. The survey sought to determine knowledge and use of Open-Access archives and to verify the conditions stated by the correspondents for their participation in an institutional Open-Access initiative. The response rate to the questionnaire was 57.9% (62 authors). Results show that 44% of the respondents (25 of 57) knew about the existence of Open-Access initiatives and archives. Of those aware of the existence of Open-Access archives, only 4% (1 in 25) affirmed they had already used them to deposit papers, while 33% (16 of 48), among those who declared they use materials freely available on the Web, affirmed they had used an Open-Access disciplinary archive. Sixty-one percent (41 of 62) of the respondents answered they were prepared to archive personally their own scientific or educational material in an institutional repository, once the conditions that they request have been fulfilled. The study illustrates the crucial role that authors play in the process of diffusion of Open-Access initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]