The Unione Romana Biblioteche Ecclesiastiche (URBE) [Roman Union of Ecclesiastical Libraries] was founded in 1991, and is today composed of twenty academic institutions in Rome, with the primary purpose of creating a network for the computerised management of the library heritage. The Parsifal project was born of the idea of developing a single catalogue shared between the participants, in a portal which offers a single point of access to the bibliographic heritage of the institutions, using the new languages of the web to encourage maximum openness and sharing of information. Built according to the BIBFRAME bibliographical model, the technological platform on which the Parsifal project is based is a component of the Share Family initiative. The contribution emphasises the strengths of the Parsifal project, as well as the critical issues that still need to be resolved, and closes with a reference to the initiative’s development prospects, with particular reference to collaboration with the Wiki world.