E.S. Burioni Ricerche Bibliografiche was founded in Genova (Italy) in 1968 by Ennio S. Burioni, formerly General Manager and Head of Foreign Department of one of the largest international bookshops in town.
The company mission was to supply libraries, university departments, research bodies and professional users of information, with books and periodicals in foreign languages. Originally the firm specialised in humanities and social sciences, while in the last fifteen years E.S. Burioni has been active also in the field of science and technology
E.S. Burioni has been interested in CD-ROM technology from the very beginning, using CD-ROM databases for its daily bibliographic work. In 1989 it has been elected "test-site" for the British Library Pilot Disc and decided to become a CD-ROM distributor to the library market in Italy.
In 1990 E.S. Burioni produced its first CD-ROM Catalogue, an annual publication that is the most circulating reference and marketing tools for CD-ROM titles in Italian language. The online edition is available on the company website and is updated daily (http://www.burioni.it/cat/cd-rom/).
E.S. Burioni organised in those years a number of seminars and meetings, often in co-operation with the Library Association and/or local Universities, and has been among the more active promoters of CD-ROM technology and electronic information resources in Italy.
As one of the leaders in distribution
of electronic information in Italy the company has followed very closely
the post-CDROM developments such as client/server systems, campus-wide
systems, Internet databases, etc.
In the last years E.S. Burioni has
managed a number of campus-wide - and more recently - consortia projects.
In 1996 it has promoted the establishment of an Italian mirror site of Chadwyck-Healey's (now Bell & Howell Information and Learning) database PCI-Periodicals Contents Index (distributed in Italy on a exclusive basis), in co-operation with the University of Genova.
In year 2000 this mirror site has been expanded to become one of the reference sites for the Humanities and Social Sciences, with the inclusion of two major humanities databases, namely Patrologia Latina and Acta Sanctorum .
In year 2000 E.s. Burioni has reached an important agreement with University of Padova, one of the oldest university in Italy and one of the most active on the library technology front for operating ensemble® (http://ensemble.unipd.it), an Internet based service for the distribution of information, built on SilverPlatter Information Electronic Reference Library(ERL) technology. The service makes available as an integrated service secondary and primary information to Universities, Research Institutions, Corporate Industries and Professionals.
The company has been using the Internet
since 1993 and has its own website since 1996.
We produce an electronic monthly
newsletter via email and web (http://esbn.burioni.it/),
that focuses on news on the international market of information (mergers
and acquisitions, consortia, internet developments, publishers’ announcements,
new publications and projects, etc.).
Since 1996 E.S. Burioni is also the publisher of ESB Forum (http://www.burioni.it/forum/), an independent web collection of papers and articles by leading Italian librarians on electronic publications and information, whose Editor in Chief is Riccardo Ridi.
In year 2000 E.S. Burioni, in co-operation with a group of leading pancreatologists, has launched JOP - Journal of Pancreas, the "first electronic journal of pancreatology" (http://www.joplink.net/), who has rapidly become very popular among specialists worldwide for its innovative format and timely publication schedule and whose newsletter counts now about 7000 subscriber.
E.S. Burioni currently distributes
(often as unique authorised distributor) electronic publications from ABC-CLIO,
ProQuest Information and Learning (including Chadwyck-Healey), Library of Congress, British
Library, SilverPlatter/Ovid Thecnologies and many other electronic publishers (http://www.burioni.it/news/editori.htm
Managing Director is Luca Burioni,
born in 1950, with an university degree in Philosophy, and a professional
training in bookselling and information management. Luca Burioni joined
the family company in 1982 and has been in charge since then of the automation
of current operations and new technology monitoring. He has been President
of the International Congress of Young Booksellers, branch of the IBF -
International Booksellers Federation - from 1989 to 1991.
As a highly efficient and professional
company E.S. Burioni is widely recognised as a leading distributor of electronic
publications to the Italian library market.