Library collections are one of the main subjects of study in the digital humanities. Since their origin and the advent of the humanities computing, the application of formalised and automated processes to the humanities has been a response to needs that arose mainly in a linguistic and literary context.

If it is established that digital humanities (DH) and library and information science (LIS) share some of their research objects, albeit adopting different perspectives and methodologies, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the relationship between these two disciplinary fields does not only concern bibliographic and documentary heritage (and therefore libraries as institutions for conservation and sources of texts to be studied and from which, for example, digital editions can be obtained), but also involves the very nature of these disciplines. In both cases, in fact, there is a theoretical component and a technical and practical component, as well as an openness to comparison and interdisciplinarity (with other humanities disciplines, but not only). The aim of this paper is to identify similarities, including epistemological ones, between digital humanities and library and information science as a discipline.

This paper presents some of the results of a research project carried out in recent years by the author; the paper presented here focuses, in particular, on the research topics addressed in the main Italian scientific journals of digital humanities and library and information science to highlight the current points of contact and relationships between digital humanities and library and information science in Italy and what future developments may be.