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"Italy has libraries called Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in both Florence and Rome. The newer institution in Rome, founded in 1876, reflected the desire to furnish the new capital of a united Italy with a symbol of the national culture. National responsibilities continue to be divided between the two libraries, although both collect material of national interest, Florence, for example, house the national bibliographic agency, while Rome maintains the National Centre for Manuscripts."

McGowan, Ian (2010). National Libraries. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (Third Ed). DOI: 10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044742

"The publicly owned Italian libraries are administered either at the level of the central government or at that of the regional, provincial or municipal authority. The State (i.e., administered by the central government) libraries may be subdivided into: a) "National"; b) "University"; c) Special; d) music departments.

The libraries of the highest rank, or "national," are located at: Rome, Florence, Bari, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin and Venice.

National libraries' cover collection and preservation of all printed matter published in Italy and received as a depository copy, acquisition and maintenance of comprehensive collections of all works pertinent to Italian civilization. They also coordinate bibliographic services of national or international interest and act as clearing house for exchanges, loans, national bibliographies, union catalogs, etc. It is also responsibility of national libraries to ensure acquisition and availability of works representing foreign civilizations and to ensure the diffusion of information on the existence of such publications through a bulletin of foreign works acquisitioned by state-owned Italian libraries. Provincial libraries have similar responsibilities in their geographical regions.

Italian libraries have a major fault: they dedicate far too much space to a chatty history of the library, to the artistic glories of its physical plant, etc., while they fail to describe adequately the subject profile of its resources.

Each library location offers limited information and bibliographic service, interlibrary loan according to the rules established by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, "malleveri," or guarantee letter, required from outside users of research libraries, 18-year minimum age limit for patrons of research libraries, a depository copy of every document printed in a given province in a selected major library of that province's capital city.

It is predicted Italian archives hold more records than all other archives of Europe combined.

Among Italian cities Milan is known for the best public library system and for the most efficient union catalog, Florence for the largest library and for the largest university-administered library, Venice for the richest archives in the country and Lucca for the best archival catalog. Trieste and the Catholic University of Milan are the only two institutions of higher learning boasting a centralized library organization.

Italian libraries can justly be proud of their impressive holdings inherited from past centuries, of their scholarly edited catalogues of rare books and manuscripts, of ancient and precious wood-carved bookshelves, of highly qualified schools of paleography and materials preservation, of highly qualified library and archival directors. Italian libraries focus on preservation of materials and conservation of bibliographic wealth; the possession of beautiful and well-written books is a goal in itself.

"University" libraries are university libraries by name only, run by government department in Rome and not under administrative connection or supervision by the university. There is no central bibliographical control of any kind; procurement and processing routines are developed by ad hoc appointed assistants, material selections depends on the personal interest and good will of faculty members placed in charge of the library; and readers' advisory service is practically unavailable or often limited to topographical directions from the library ushers.

The wealth of ancient records represents a partial explanation of the fact that ancient documents are less closely guarded and that the restrictions on their use are less severe than might be expected. One has to be aware of the huge financial burden which the preservation of large quantities of precious materials constitutes even to a prosperous and technologically advanced country.

The following are the principal types of archives in Italy: central state archives, provincial, municipal, ecclesiastical, universities, academies, learned societies, research institutes and schools, various branches of armed forces, economic institutions, private family and manor, court, police and notary public records.

The Ministero dei Beni Culturali e Ambientali (Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Resources) oversees libraries, archives, museums, art galleries and monuments since 1974.

The Director General of the Archives is advised by the Superior Council of Archives, which is called upon to express its opinion regarding organization, administration and policy of the State archives. States archives are organized at three levels: 1) Central State Archives in Rome; 2) State archives in each provincial capital; 3) detached Sections of Provincial State Archives in other cities of each province, whenever the size and relevance of records in that city appears to justify it. (The law limits the number of those sections to 40 in the entire nation.)

State archives are in charge of the preservation of records of the pre-unitarian Italian States; of those records of the kingdom of Italy and of the Italian Republic generated by the legislative, executive or judicial authorities no longer required by the respective agencies; and of other archival materials donated or entrusted to the State archives by Church, municipal or private donors. Access to State archives is free for all researchers, commercial purposes is subject to written permit and fee.

Regional archival authorities are in charge of the supervision and maintenance of a register of archival holdings of family and other private archives (every Italian citizen who owns records more than 70 years old should report this fact to proper local archival authorities, compile an inventory of those documents, allow researchers to consult them and send notification about any change of property.) Local archival authorities evaluate the historical importance of specific private archival holdings and to declare certain collections to be of national relevance.

Lewanski, R.C. (1979). Guide to Italian Libraries and Archives. Council for European Studies.

During the period 1860-1940 there was extensive concern in Italy for the development and organization of libraries. Preservation of the Italian bibliographic heritage plus contemporary efforts in library development were considered important for the growth of national culture in the newly unified country. But the efforts of Italian librarians were constantly frustrated by lack of money and the inflexibility of governmental bureaucracy.

Ceriani, D. (2019). Internet Culturale: Catalogues and Digital Collections of Italian Libraries. Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 16(1), 161-171.

When Italy was united (1859-70) it was little prepared to take over the libraries of the old states or those that were confiscated from religious institutions. Financial means and, especially, personnel were inadequate. The few who understood the problem and tried to be helpful were hampered by governmental bureaucracy.

Dean, E. A. (1983). The Organization of Italian Libraries from the Unification until 1940. The Library Quarterly, 53(4), 399-419.

Even today many problems are unsolved, and will remain so, as expessed by Dr. Scardamaglia at Bari, "as long as forty-one million of the forty-one and one-half million Italians believe that libraries are the concern of a few thousand old and bespactacled bookworms." And these bookworms, in turn, must abandom the idea that libraries are cemeteries for books and authors; that they are made only for books and not for readers; and that the fewer readers there are, the better.

There are two large papal libraries, the Vatican Library in Vatican City and the Ambrosian Library in Milan.

Giordani, I. (1939). The Work of Italian Libraries. The Library Quarterly, 9(2), 145-155.