In 2016 the Ministry of Culture established the Archives and Bibliographic Superintendences (Sovrintendenze Archivistiche e bibliografiche) with the precise task of protection of archives and on library patrimony, identifying cultural patrimonies exposed to specific risks and implementing protection plans.
The DARCAP System (Documentation of Public Administration Archives, Documentazione degli Archivi delle Amministrazioni Pubbliche) includes more than 3.400 archives, regularly analyzed by ISTAT, while 101 are State Archives, in every provincial capital. Adding to this core public dimension of institutions, there is a universe of private historic and industrial archives, that represents a big challenge in terms of protection and accessibility.
The exponential growth of documentation in many archives is also one of the motivations for experimenting with new systems of document navigation, based on artificial intelligence algorithms: the lack of time also for professional researchers and the objective to enlarge audiences outside of historians and researchers, spreading all the potentialities of extended use by local populations is a driving force for innovation and setting up more friendly interfaces for the entire citizenship.
In this direction, the Ministry established a special fund of 300 million Euros to remove physical and cognitive barriers for archives and libraries, that means investing in implementing all types of accessibility, including cultural and cognitive, opening this patrimony to non expert users.
Another fund of 105 million Euros is being established for 2022, addressed to purchase or realising a building for State Archives, or adapting an ancient building to new seismic and fire regulations.
According to ISTAT[1] the number of libraries in Italy is 7.459, 6.066 of which are public: 104 are directly managed by the State, 5.557 by municipalities and/or local governments, and 537 by religious bodies.
Thanks to their widespread diffusion, including in rural areas and in smaller centres, libraries play the role of an irreplaceable cultural stronghold in almost every territory of the nation, with prevalence in Centre-Nord Regions.
Many public reading libraries provide a greater service that just places for book loans – from 2008, in the long years of the economic crisis, the range of services rapidly increased, especially in big cities to cover language courses, workshops, education, digital literacy, shelter for people in difficult conditions, a welcoming place for migrants and new citizens, providing services as civic centres, and moved toward structures of cultural and social welfare.
This social dimension, described by Antonella Agnoli in the book Piazze del sapere, (Squares of Knowledge)[2], does not consign to the background the core mission of preserving the librarian patrimony and putting people in touch with books, but it’s a powerful push to evolve toward an institution open to social changes, available to change skin according to the evolution of social needs.
Anyway promoting books and reading stands still at the core of libraries, sustained by public funding at the different power levels, local government, regions, the state.
In 2017 the Ministry established a Fund devoted to promote reading in libraries[3]; the objective is to empower local networks and systems of libraries, improving performances of services for audiences.
Very similar objectives are shared also by Cepell, the Centre for books and reading, (Centro per il libro e la lettura), an autonomous Institute established in 2007 by the Ministry, under the General Direction of Libraries and Copyright.
Cepell is in charge of implementing policies of promoting books and reading in Italy, as well as Italian culture abroad, being a meeting point for all the professionals working in the book and publishing domain. The Centre is active also in book promotion for children, sustaining festivals, supporting the Book fairs of Turin and Rome and taking part in other initiatives
The pandemic storm, followed by lockdowns meant the interruption of the vis à vis relationships with audiences and the parallel strong increase in digital services. At the national level in 2020, the MLOL platform, the first Italian service of digital lending, used by approx. seven thousand libraries had a dramatic increase of 89% in new users and a 102% in loans.
There was a strong impact connected with the loss of public library spaces to socialise in person, particularly felt by students using libraries as quiet places to study, especially during the pandemic, or for elderly people used to meeting in the reading rooms.
The Ministry reacted by providing new funds to overcome the crisis, addressed to book promotion and to new book purchases for libraries, recommending the involvement of bookshops as a target also of other public incentives.
[1] www.istat.it/it/archivio/264586
[2] Antonella Agnoli, Le piazze del sapere, Bari, Laterza 2009-2013.
[3] DL n. 50/2017, art. 22, comma 7-quater, Promozione della lettura nei sistemi bibliotecari.
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