L 'Italy of libraries
"We can talk about libraries at the sesquicentennial anniversary of Italy, trying to hold together a historical and an eye toward the future? Difficult to do without reference to the cultural conditions in which they performed the process of national unification. In 1866 Pasquale Villari invited to take note that there was "in the bosom of the nation a more powerful enemy of Austria, our colossal ignorance." Three out of four Italians were illiterate and have to wait for the new century to have a slim majority of citizens able to read and write only in 1901 the percentage of illiterates dropped to 48.5%.
Story reading and story of the "public reading", that organization's national library, are deeply connected and it is clear that in this context, the libraries were made to a marginal role. The Italian company, especially compared to central and northern Europe, will also impact other factors of a cultural history of more distant origin, such as familiarity with the reading of the Bible among Protestants (the Scandinavian countries, Germany, England defeated early illiteracy). This is not the place to remember the Reformation and Counter Reformation have influenced the fate of European culture, but we have to say that Italy has not done much to change the state of things. The weaknesses and difficulties in starting time were added in the disinterest and ignorance of policy makers, unable to build a network of cultural infrastructure that could grow as a unit and harmonically Italy and the Italians.
legacy pre-unification had formed before the breach of Porta Pia, from 210 libraries, of which 164 are open to the public, distributed in 45 cities (excluding Rome). From there, the moves taken the building of the library system new Kingdom. It was during those years which was committed a gross misunderstanding: the local public libraries, usually for the entire local community, in many cases just then born as a result of the confiscation of church property. The decision to outsource these "national assets" to the municipalities served more to ensure that the housing to create a fabric of public services for citizens. It was in fact born of library collections for other purposes and addressed to other recipients, so their usefulness as a function of literacy and the promotion of reading was almost nothing. He called those years the identity of Italian libraries, strongly oriented to conservation. Totally
other than the origin of Anglo-Saxon public library, founded on the system of self-government UK and conceived for the urban proletariat created by the industrial revolution. These establishments are heavily engaged in the field of continuing education, with primary emphasis on preserving the heritage but not the ability to deliver services. At this point their target people's libraries, which began to spread in Italy in the second half of the initiative of philanthropic organizations with a religious or political union, but never reaching deep roots in the community. Without
go further in this historical analysis, we take note of the absolute margin of libraries, all types of libraries, which now amount to more than 16,000 on the card (of which 46 belong to the Ministry of Culture, 6700 to local authorities, university 2500), according to Istat attended only 11% of Italians.
remain very strong territorial imbalances: 40% of the libraries and 50% of the libraries operating in the northern regions and less than 30% in the South and the Islands.
The effects are visible to all: Italy's reading is undergoing profound regional inequalities, by gender, age, socio-economic status.
In 2010 about twenty percentage points separating the South (35% of readers on the population) from the North (54%) and you'd think that you are not talking about the same country: the figure of the northern regions is similar to that of Germany, the United Kingdom or France, while the percentage of the South is roughly the same as Portugal, Malta and Bulgaria.
The characteristics and size of place of residence affect much: those who live in large urban areas read more. This is not surprising, because many are common, even of medium size, no bookstores and libraries, in which a citizen has the opportunity to meet a book about his journey. Sensitive
also the difference between the sexes. The average figure of 46.8% of Italians who last year read at least one book comes from a percentage of 40 among males and 53 among females. Up to 1973 people read more than women, but from that moment on, the effect of higher education, reading has become predominantly female activity, and now in all age groups women read more than men.
The situation should be faced with an enhanced network services. But all Italian libraries are in a deep crisis, exacerbated in recent years from drastic cuts in budgets. Those are all made worse by the state libraries. Consider that the National Roma has a budget of 1.5 million and that of Florence , the largest school librarian in the country, has only 2 million per year, while the Paris has a budget of 254 million, 160 million London, Madrid 52 million. And in 2011 the Ministry of Culture announced cuts of 50%. At this rate, you go straight ahead towards the closing.
To look with confidence to the future should last a national library policy, knowing that you're not just talking about libraries, books and readers, but a vital educational function in contemporary society, with important consequences on the potential for economic growth and social life of the national community. Due to a lack of familiarity with the written word, 70% of Italians can not understand a simple text, fill a form, follow the instructions for the use of an appliance. To backwardness that characterizes our country on the ground that there is now reading on the spread of broadband network and Internet penetration in homes, at the risk of being left with a ball and chain similar to one hundred and fifty years ago was represented illiteracy.
For some time the issue of information literacy to the attention of educators and librarians around the world who are reinterpreting
in this way the function of cultural promotion carried out by libraries, aimed at individual and collective growth of people, ensuring citizenship rights in unasocietà truly inclusive. In this new frontier of literacy we can identify perhaps the main task of the Italian libraries in the information society. "(John Solimine , but Italy does not go to the library," La Stampa "," Tuttolibri, 26/02 / '11)
Italy reading of John Solimine (Laterza )
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