The Organization and Problems of University Libraries in Italy

FORTHE FOREIGNER, who has no direct knowledge of or experience with Italian libraries, it is necessary, fist of all, to describe them as they are. On the one hand there are the public governmental libraries, that is, those which are administered as national institutions directly by the state [national government]. On the other hand there are the libraries of the local governmental authorities, whether they be the municipalities or the provinces, over which the national government also exercises a certain measure of control, for the most part on a regional basis, by means of the bibliographical superintendents who report to the Directorate-General of Libraries. The public governmental libraries are divided into two large categories: ( a ) independent libraries, and ( b ) libraries which “serve as an aid to other institutions,” as established by the still effective Royal decree of October 24, 1907.” I t is important to explain the term independent as attributed to the libraries of the first category. This term is not meant in the sense of their enjoying an independence of operation (they are, actually, dependent on the national government through the Ministry of Public Instruction, Directorate-General of Libraries ), but in the sense, as differentiated from the university libraries, of their not having any ties to or complementary relationships with other institutions. The principal of these biblioteche autonome are the “national” libraries of Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Naples, Bari, Palermo, the libraries of such smaller communities as Cremona, Parma, Gorizia and Lucca, and the historical libraries of Rome and Florence such as the Angelica, the Casanatense, the Medicea-Laurenziana, and the Marucelliana. The university libraries include, or rather they themselves make