Sponsored and organized by 1563 Foundation for Art and Culture of the Compagnia di San Paolo
A key aspect of historical libraries is not only their function as places of documentation and study, but also as spaces to visit, monumental places that offer permanent or temporary exhibition routes, real and virtual, that collect and preserve ancient and rare book and documentary heritages.
From this point of view, Italian libraries offer a broad panorama open to scholars, tourists, and the curious, which has rapidly increased the need to know, value and enjoy cultural heritage in the age of new technologies and social networks, putting the issue of communicating cultural heritage and its enjoyment through new forms of access at the center.
The meeting is intended to be a time to talk about culture as an essential element for the development of society, whose knowledge spaces such as museums and libraries are recognized as custodians of heritages that need to be preserved, protected, but today, above all, enhanced and communicated through the use of digital technologies and innovative management methodologies.
This has generated the need for libraries to redefine their role and profile in order to prevent the very digital technologies from risking marginalizing them, since their patrimony does not consist solely of the individual volumes preserved, but of the events of their formation, the needs (technical, informational, representative) to which their institution has responded over time, the interweaving of histories that have seen the patrimony’s protagonists, the technical and artistic aspects (bindings, miniatures, furnishings), and the network of relationships they maintain with the rest of the patrimony.
It will discuss how historic libraries have strengthened and expanded their mission as places of knowledge, the strategies and tools adopted to deal with the digital transformation to make known and enhance the assets and resources they have, with a look at organizational issues and sustainability, and again how online access to cultural resources has become an urgent expectation and need of audiences and a means of making themselves known and communicated more effectively and inclusively.
They will discuss the need to imagine new forms of communication and storytelling that restore their rightful place in the overall landscape of heritage and knowledge.
2:00 p.m. – Institutional greetings
Stefano Campagnolo, Ministry of Culture – Director of the National Central Library in Rome
Andrea De Pasquale, Central State Archives, director general-superintendent
Stefano Benedetto, director of the State Archives of Turin and, ad interim, director of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley
Laura Fornara, secretary general of the 1563 Foundation for Art and Culture of the Compagnia di San Paolo
14:20 – Theaters of all sciences and arts: new narratives for ancient libraries
Stefano Benedetto, director of the State Archives of Turin and, ad interim, director of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley
14:35 – Museums in libraries: an Italian tradition
Andrea De Pasquale, Central State Archives, director general-superintendent
14:50 – The Marciana National Library in Venice, Library-Museum yesterday and today
Stefano Campagnolo, Ministry of Culture – Director of the National Central Library in Rome
15:05 – Spaces900 at the National Central Library in Rome
Eleonora Cardinale, National Central Library of Rome
15:20 Back to the future: libraries and museums in the age of digital convergence
Maurizio Vivarelli, Department of Historical Studies, University of Turin
** Break 15:35 – 15:50**
15:50 The Ambrosiana in Milan: Library, Art Gallery, Academy
Federico Gallo, Director of the Ambrosian Library in Milan
16:05 The Royal Library of Turin
Giuseppina Mussari, Director of the Royal Library of Turin. Ministry of Culture. Royal Museums
16:20 The Digital Library of the Galileo Museum in Florence
Stefano Casati, Museo Galileo Digital Library Manager
16:35 The Girolamini Library and Monumental Complex, two years of autonomy
Antonella Cucciniello, Ministry of Culture – Girolamini Library and Monumental Complex
16:50 The re-functionalization of library spaces. Turin Rome experiences on the contemporary compared
Diego Giachello, Ideas Workshop
Conclusions
Moderator: Stefano Benedetto, director of the State Archives of Turin and, ad interim, director of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley
The panel will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 16, from 2 to 5 p.m., at the Macchia Room.
