Casalini Libri was founded in the late 1950s by Mario Casalini, the idea emerging during a business trip to the United States that Mario made on behalf of the publishing house La Nuova Italia. An avid reader and well-versed in Classics and the Arts, Mario noticed both an insufficiency in the quality and timeliness of bibliographic information and a growing need for a reliable supply of Italian publications abroad. This intuition led him, in 1958, to create an information and supply service for titles that were not easily found. An activity that was initially dedicated solely to the Library of Congress in Washington, the continuous increase in requests to the service made an expansion of personnel necessary, and consequently a new venue, in Via Leopardi in Florence.
The company's mission remains to this day the diffusion of Italian culture worldwide, a driving force that impels it to continue evolving and to create solid foundations for the development of well defined services dedicated to all types of cultural and academic institutions. In the 1960s the company deepened its commitment mainly in consolidating and perfecting its bibliographic services, while in the 1970s it began managing subscriptions to journals on behalf of its customers. It was the 1980s that saw a real turning point: Casalini Libri created its own bibliographic database and was among the first European bibliographic agencies to distribute records in MARC format. In the 1990s all catalogue records were published online in a website designed specifically for libraries and research institutions, to facilitate the consultation of data and the development of their book collections. In 1999 Casalini Libri, in collaboration with The Charleston Company, inaugurated the series of annual Fiesole Retreat conferences on the future of libraries.
Faithful to the traditions of the business and committed to innovation, at the beginning of the new millennium Casalini Libri was one of the first companies to appear on the digital market, with the publication of the first collection of electronic titles EIO - Editoria Italiana Online, made possible thanks to close links and fruitful collaboration with some of the most important academic publishing houses in the country. Immediately afterwards, the company expanded its supply of paper publications to include the whole range of the Romance languages; the catalogue of electronic publications was also gradually enriched with Spanish, French and Portuguese titles. In 2011 the digital library was renewed both in terms of its technology and functions, and the Torrossa digital platform introduced. During the same period, Casalini Libri further advanced its cataloguing activities and expertise, creating records according to the RDA (Resource Description and Access) standards, just a few years after becoming part of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), to which it contributes subject and classification proposals and authority files.
Today Casalini Libri is particularly interested in Linked Data and the possibilities it holds for the field of librarianship. A firm believer in technology as a fundamental tool for innovation, the company invests heavily in research and development: in 2017 it was officially recognized as an ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) registration agency and is still involved in the library community's discussions on BIBFRAME (Bibliographic Framework Initiative), as well as being a promoter of models for the practical application of BIBFRAME in libraries.
Thanks to the guidance of Mario's children, Barbara and Michele, more than 60 years after its foundation and now with two offices in Fiesole and Caldine, Casalini Libri not only still reflects the original innovative essence instilled by its founder, but takes forward his desire to promote the dissemination of culture, through collaborative work and constant dialogue with the library and academic world.