Int. Libr. Rev.
(1973) 5, 81-85
INTAMEL
WORKING ITALIAN
PARTY, ITALY, STUDIES
1972
(3) Initial Assumptions for an Approach to Library Development in Lombardy S. FONTANA-~
A necessary step towards understanding the logic that lies behind our initial approach to library development in Lombardy is the illustration of all the aspects involved in cultural policy actions or even in political action tout court. This means that we have to take into account some basic factors that, it is hoped, are by now taken for granted by everybody and on which we must lay special stress, chiefly considering the many practical consequences they are bound to entail. To begin with, a source of frustration to those who like ourselves have to cope with it, is the great importance to which the cultural industry has risen; unfortunately this is true not only of the private sector. Demand has been stimulated which can be satisfied by mass production but the negative effect of this is that every impulse towards the formation of a critical consciousness is stifled in a sort of spiral. It may suffice to consider what is going on in the information sector which is using ever more concentrated headings in its daily papers; or one may consider the falsehood of the official neutrality claimed by the public information media (Radio-Television). Another factor endangering our cultural life is the rigid system adopted by the Italian schools in the functionally interrelated methods and contents of their teaching, a rigidity which has deeply affected the overall pattern of Italian culture, producing estrangement of the popular classes from culture with only a few exceptions. This is further evidence of the fact that up to now at least the trends of culture have been moving much too often in a direction opposite to the deeper needs of the popular classes. There is another premise to be made concerning the innovative Via Meravigli2, Milan, Italy.
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impact on the Italian political set-up of the institution of Ordinary Stature Regions. Such an effect may be regarded as innovative only to the extent to which it involves a change in the balance of the existing forces. Actually one must recognize that at its outset the new regional policy has provided a means for modifying the relationships between political forces and regional institutions on one hand and the social forces on the other. And it is on the new dynamics that emerged from the regional experience that we must rely on in seeking political outlets for the pressure exercised by the popular classes at a cultural level. So the time will soon come when we shall have to check the efficiency of the Lombard region in securing the institutional tools required by the popular classcs in order to achieve, in the field of culture and information, a greater weight, an importance up to and consistent with the role they play in the economic development of the country. We must not overlook, however, the legislative context within which the region is forced to unfurl its political action; the Italian legislation on libraries is inadequate and is not respected either. In fact, apart from the 1941 Act, there are no other norms in force dealing with the institution and operation of municipal libraries, unless one takes into consideration the code of municipal and provincial legislation of 1934, which, by the way, is always interpreted in the restrictive sense. The Presidential Decree No. 3 of 14 J a n u a r y 1972, on " T h e transfer of the State Administration functions of assistance to schools, museums, local libraries and of their staff and offices under the regional institutions", underwent a sequence of development typical of the history of the transfer of state functions to regions and it has been intcrpreted in a variety of different ways which eventually led up to the complete disregard of the provisions under item (b) of Article 17, Act No. 281-1970, which governs the transfer of state functions "by organic sectors of items". If we pass on to consider the present situation of public libraries, we are bound to notice the piecemeal character of state intervention, that has never succeeded in providing for the country a uniform and functional library service structure. Even in the Lombard territory these inorganic interventions and the lack of co-ordination among existing institutions has resulted in a disorderly sequence of individual initiatives, mostly inadequate and certainly wasteful. This means that no sufficient efforts have ever been made to link up this kind of intervention with a plan of cultural policy covering the entire territory of the Nation in order to cope with the multifarious aspects of local reality.
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This is why the main concern of the Lombard region was to explore the situation of resources and requirements, so as to identify shortcomings both in quantitative and qualitative terms as well as the sociological aspects involved. In fact, the identification of cultural demands must be based on social and economic analysis, taking into account the demographic situation, the occupational structure, educational standards, associated trends and the level of utilization of cultural products. The ratio of supply to demand, both in actual and potential terms, has to be assessed over territorial areas with comparatively uniform geomorphological and socio-economic characteristics in order to determine the level of resources available as compared to the actual needs, not so much for the limited area of the administrative districts, but rather for territorial entities representative of peculiar cultural interests shared by groups of communities. This information is necessary for a comprehensive evaluation of the existing structure and for a rational distribution of initiatives with a view to producing balanced changes in the social texture. However, it would be mere delusion to think that the problem can be effectively handled without adopting an organic approach to analysis and to the initiatives proper. In fact, the cultural activities of the region should not be conceived as a means for developing an additional cultural line, but rather as an integral part of the overall regional plan of Lombardy. The cultural and information policy, under which heading the library policy belongs, is bound to be but an expression of a broader initiative, which in its concrete and articulated form will produce the basic cultural action for the creation (in co-operation with local authorities) of a network of cultural centres, that is meant to spread in all directions and to penetrate deeply into the social tissue of the region, while reorganizing and putting to value the individual initiatives and the existing structures. So if culture is no longer regarded as an isolated factor, neither must libraries be treated as separate institutions estranged from the economic, political, social reality or from the context in which they act. Libraries must acquire a flexible structure and must be available to citizens for multiple uses and must become part of the living texture of the communities, the site for cultural elaborations, not only for the consumers of ready made cultural products. In the field of library network organization, it logically follows from the foregoing that the region will have the task of providing appropriate conditions for the actual utilization of the entire bibliographic system of Lombardy on the part of citizens andfor their participation in all the cultural activities
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of the community. In other words we are faced here with a series of closely related elements indispensable for lifting the cultural and social level of the population and for meeting the above stated requirements. It is therefore necessary to set up a regional bibliographic service that will call for the preparation of one single regional catalogue covering the whole bibliographic material of Lombardy and for the institution of a communications network so as to provide quickly upon request the means for the utilization of library materials at any point of the regional territories. Obviously none of these things will be feasible unless we standardize the regulations and eliminate library classification methods based on the principles of ownership rather than on functions. Thus libraries are bound to become complementary to each other (including state libraries). But in order to fulfil its functions, the regional bibliographic service must be matched by appropriate structures which are necessary to implement a region-wide policy in this sector, and for this purpose provincial and sub-provincial systems will have to be introduced with a view to obtaining as early as possible the proper quality and organization standards needed to satisfy the demand. These cultural service centres wilt be sited in the chief towns of provinces or other district areas and they will also act as specific territorial service units--for the sake of brevity we shall call them cultural units--to serve not only library purposes, but also as a fundamental tool in the organization of cultural participation. These centres should not be considered as an authority-imposed solution, but rather, in the spirit of the regional policy for the development of local autonomies so deeply rooted in the whole Statute of the Lombard region, as centres for the distribution of services and capacities to assist the lower layers of the community in developing their own cultural trends and decisions. In fact one of the distinctive features of the cultural unit will be the flexibility of its organization which will enable it to adjust to its sociological environment and to the changes which it will succeed in introducing within the collectivity wherein it is called upon to act. These relations will of course have to be so balanced as to avoid providing material where the specialization does not require any (e.g. conserving precious book material). However, in this connection it will be necessary to take into account certain indirect correlations to provide links between the various services (e.g. even restoring the system for preserving precious book material requires, in addition to regional intervention, community participation in the initiative). Among the concrete tasks lying ahead we must not underrate the
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importance of professional qualifications for librarians. This function will be very accurately fulfilled, as far as the region is concerned, because it is our belief that this aspect of library organization is essential to secure proper conditions for the survival even of the simplest peripheral cultural units. Considering the enormous problems we are faced with, it is planned (although the full picture of organization has not been completed as yet) that the regional office of the cultural department should accommodate all general services of co-ordination, planning, and those strictly bibliotechnical and bibliographic services which owing to the dimensions involved are best handled at a region-wide level. This will have to satisfy the cultural demand expected to emerge from an integrated system of cultural communication and permanent education that is bound to inject new strength into the cultural tissue of Lombardy, to be enlivened by the community and by a more democratic and broader approach to the concept of the public library.