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The history of the Italian Library Association (AIB), established on 11th June 1930, is known in outline, but it has not yet been sufficiently studied for its historical interest, on the basis of the organic, even if not complete, documentation preserved in its historical archives. For the initial period, during the twenty years of Fascism, the documents actually preserved regard almost only the annual conferences. There is also, however, the accounts book kept from the foundation up to January 1944 by Luigi De Gregori, to which this paper is chiefly devoted. During this period, as is well known, the AIB remained under the control of the Ministry for National Education and in particular of the General Direction for Academies and Libraries. By its Statute the main officers were nominated by the Ministry and the others had to receive its approval, but the actual profile of the relations between the Association and the political-administrative hierarchy has yet to be reconstructed.The accounts book shows that the Association's own resources (membership fees, registration fees for conferences or tours, etc.) form about 21% of the overall budget, to which are added 45% of contributions or reimbursements of the Ministry of National Education and 34% of payments and contributions from other bodies. While the income of the membership fees abundantly covered ordinary management, the ministerial grants were aimed above all at annual conferences and support for the participation of delegations of Italian librarians in international library and documentation conventions. Actually the decisive spur for the birth of a national library association came from the first World Conference of Libraries and Bibliography, held in Italy in 1929, and the AIB undertook especially to guarantee the presence of Italy in the activities of the International Federation of Library Associations: this field saw the encounter of the will of the most expert librarians to become less provincial and the desire of the Fascist regime to exhibit itself on the international scene.The other Ministerial funding seems basically to be "clearing transactions", at least in the figurative sense, because it includes payments for activities that the AIB entrusted to officials of the Ministry itself and reimbursements for contributions that the Association had granted to other bodies (such as the newly founded Institute of Book Pathology) or to librarians and library employees in personal difficulties. Among the contributions for particular activities, the largest is certainly that for the compilation of the annual Statistics of Italian publications, granted by the Italian Institute of the Book in Florence and then (from 1937 to 1943) by the Academy of Italy.The expenditure for ordinary management, modest and far inferior to the income from membership fees, allows the partial reconstruction of the daily life of the Association, for example through the expenses incurred from 1934 on for the first headquarter, at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, and for the organization of the office.These initiatives are the work of Luigi De Gregori, treasurer of the AIB from its foundation, who also gathered together a group of trusted collaborators (among whom Ms Massimi who also looked after the secretariat in the recent past, until 1992) and actually ran all the activities of the Association, always in full agreement with the president, Senator Pier Silverio Leicht. Between compliance with the Regime and contrasts with the political and bureaucratic hierarchy, Leicht and De Gregori managed to guarantee the possibility, especially in the annual conferences, of an open professional debate and of raising in the press the most important library questions, from the need for a true great national library to that for modern public libraries, for everyone, in every part of Italy.The fall of Fascism (25 July 1943) also brought an end to the activities of the Association, but already under the German occupation of Rome (September 1943-June 1944) some librarians (Francesco Barberi, Maria Ortiz, etc.), while giving their modest contribution to the resistance, began discussing about "old" and "new" association of Italian librarians.

The organisation of a conference on "Virginia Carini Dainotti and library politics post world war II" has acted as a stimulus to re-exam a period of recent history of the library profession often noted in a rather summary way. The viewpoint taken by myself is that of professional ethics, a sort of mirror in which we find clearly reflected the key problems that librarians and Italian libraries tried to face at that time - particularly in the Sixties - and that are still relevant today.Virginia Carini Dainotti entered, via her writings, into the debate on the big themes of democracy and freedom, and in particular the right to information, choosing the best minds of the left, from Norberto Bobbio to Lelio Basso, as her debating opposites and targets. Another theme that reoccurs in the writings of Carini Dainotti and in the professional literature of those years is that of the librarian as educator.In her theoretical skirmishes Virginia Carini Dainotti remembered that in practice the librarian will always, inevitably be measured by three adversaries, the authority on which he depends, the community in which he works and its own temptations. According to Virginia Carini Dainotti the only point of reference could be professional standards, in particular where they define the criteria for materials selection, what is acceptable and what is not, and set the limits of the librarian's independence in respect to the political authority.In one of her essays she also published a draft proposal for an articulated code of ethics, inspired essentially by the declaration of principles of the American Library Association (Library bill of rights), even if she presented it as a simple suggestion to the Italian Library Association (AIB).Carini Dainotti was uncompromisingly faithful to these ideas, at least from when, at the start of the Fifties, she concentrated her activities on the problems of the public library and the creation of a nation-wide network of librarian services, that later became the National Reading Service (Servizio nazionale di lettura).These themes were brought up very often by Carini Dainotti at the AIB congresses and at government conferences but in reality remained dead issues: only in 1994, more than twenty years later, the question was taken up by the Association and only in October 1997, at the Congress in Naples, the first Librarian's code of ethics was carried with unanimous approval.As for the theory, Carini Dainotti collected documentation, mainly but not exclusively from the United States, and also reflections on problems such as how to reconcile the freedom of the reader with the selection of books entrusted to the librarian. Emphasis was placed on the refuse of labelling pratices - a problem we have today as well if one considers the debate on rating Internet resources.One of the many merits of the works of Virginia Carini Dainotti is definitely the fact that she tried with all her might to introduce into Italy not only the concept but also the actual expression public library, to denote a library designed to meet the information needs of all members of the community and not, as was usual in Italy, a learned library formally open to all adults. She often argued against the division of libraries and librarians by the governing administrations rather than by the functions of the institutions.The last point of reference to emphasize is the decidedly supranational dimension of the profession. If sometimes the abrupt Americanism of Virginia Carini Dainotti, for example in the debate at the AIB congresses on the question of cataloguing, may seem irritating, one need only remember and acknowledge that on the relevant issues mentioned here there existed at an international level and in more advanced countries a body of practical accomplishment and an acquisition of principles that in our country barely existed.Her interventions constant calls for Italy to remain attached to Unesco and IFLA statements, and therefore to the need to respect and spread in our country the international principles of library policy and library organisation.However, a break in Italian librarianship in the course of the Sixties lead to a certain isolation from the international professional community, after all the efforts made above all in the years immediately preceding and that are generally associated to the name of Renato Pagetti, president of the Italian Library Association.The accounts of the discussions of these themes, often very lively, that cover the second half of the Sixties and the early Seventies are often despairingly provincial and inaccurate. Another characteristic is the lack of a sense of the quantitative dimensions of the problem of public libraries and more generally the lack of a scientific attitude to facts, as regards both planning and evaluation.In the Seventies there was a strong generational and ideological break between Italian librarians. However, the real turning point in the life of the Italian Library Association is to be seen in 1969, with the election of Renato Pagetti. On the other hand, in the actual development of public libraries in the Seventies, due to a political and social push that also involved the local administrations and a new generation of librarians, it is difficult to see original professional contributions. The weak attempts to elaborate a new conception of the public library or new models of service seemed to dry up in a rather vacuous ideological debate on one side and in traditional practices on the other.

L'articolo non vuole affrontare il più vasto tema di "fascismo e biblioteche", la politica bibliotecaria e le realizzazioni del ventennio in questo campo, ma si propone lo scopo di iniziare una ricostruzione della presenza e delle posizioni dei bibliotecari in questa fase della storia della società italiana. Il periodo fascista è un periodo di modernizzazione tecnica delle biblioteche italiane ma anche di irrigidimento del sistema bibliotecario italiano. Nasce in questo periodo una rappresentanza professionale dei bibliotecari (l'Associazione dei bibliotecari italiani, nel 1930) e qualche anno prima era stato costituito un vertice amministrativo (la Direzione generale delle accademie e biblioteche, nata nel 1926 e rimasta sostanzialmente la stessa fino ad oggi) che agiva come filtro fra la politica e la professione.La presa del fascismo tra i bibliotecari italiani, negli anni intorno alla Marcia su Roma, è molto limitata. Molti liberali considerarono il fascismo come un "male minore" rispetto alle tensioni sociali del 1919-1920, ma sono pochissimi e di scarsa importanza i bibliotecari che aderirono al fascismo prima della Marcia su Roma, come il conte Giuseppe Lando Passerini (1858-1932), bibliotecario alla Nazionale di Firenze e alla Laurenziana, o Antonio Toschi, bibliotecario a Bologna. Nessuna personalità importante del mondo delle biblioteche aderì al Manifesto degli intellettuali del fascismo (1925) scritto da Giovanni Gentile; pochi sono anche gli aderenti alla risposta preparata da Benedetto Croce, ma fra questi troviamo Emidio Martini, direttore della Biblioteca nazionale di Napoli in pensione.Tra gli esponenti del Partito Fascista troviamo alcuni direttori di biblioteca, come Italo Lunelli (1891-1960) direttore della Biblioteca comunale di Trento e Leonardo D'Addabbo (1893-1958) direttore della Biblioteca consorziale di Bari, che però non ebbero un ruolo significativo nella professione. Il personaggio più interessante è Piero Zama (1886-1984), fondatore del Partito fascista a Faenza e direttore della Biblioteca comunale della città dal 1920 al 1957. Zama però si staccò dal fascismo per il suo carattere reazionario e venne poi perseguitato.Le biblioteche furono spesso, invece, dei rifugi relativamente tranquilli per le persone contrarie al Fascismo. Alla Biblioteca Vaticana lavorarono Gerardo Bruni (1896-1975) e Igino Giordani (1894-1980), che avevano collaborato con don Sturzo nel Partito popolare e che furono mandati dalla Biblioteca a studiare biblioteconomia in America, nel 1927. Più tardi lavorò alla Vaticana anche Alcide De Gasperi, presidente del Consiglio dopo la Liberazione. Nelle biblioteche statali venivano spesso destinati insegnanti di liceo e professoni universitari antifascisti che il Regime voleva togliere dall'insegnamento: per esempio Bianca Ceva ed Elena Valla alla Biblioteca nazionale di Milano, il filosofo Giuseppe Rensi alla Biblioteca universitaria di Genova e Pilo Albertelli (1907-1944), eroe della Resistenza, alla Biblioteca nazionale di Roma.Nel periodo fascista venne costituita, dopo il Congresso mondiale delle biblioteche e di bibliografia tenuto nel 1929 a Roma e Venezia, l'Associazione dei bibliotecari italiani (dal 1932 Associazione italiana per le biblioteche), controllata dal Ministero dell'educazione nazionale ma indipendente dal Partito. Il Partito fascista costituì una propria Sezione Bibliotecari nell'Associazione fascista del pubblico impiego e poi nell'Associazione fascista della scuola: queste associazioni ebbero larghe adesioni, per i vantaggi che offrivano, ma non svolsero attività significative nel campo delle biblioteche. La relativa autonomia dell'AIB dalla pressione del Fascismo fu resa possibile dal prestigio del presidente, l'uomo politico e professore Pier Silverio Leicht, e dalla Direzione generale delle accademie e biblioteche, che gestiva il settore delle biblioteche limitando per quanto possibile l'ingerenza politica e ideologica.I direttori delle biblioteche statali che non erano favorevoli al fascismo restarono di solito ai loro posti, ma negli anni Trenta la tessera del Partito nazionale fascista diventò necessaria per i funzionari dello Stato e alcuni bibliotecari antifascisti vennero destituiti, come Pietro Zorzanello dalla Biblioteca Palatina di Parma nel 1934 e Anita Mondolfo dalla Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze nel 1937. Nel 1938 vennero licenziati dallo Stato i bibliotecari ebrei. Parecchi bibliotecari antifascisti preferirono prendere la tessera del PNF e rimanere ai propri posti, dove potevano operare per le biblioteche e, dalla fine degli anni Trenta, per la loro protezione dai rischi e dai danni della guerra.Dal 1934 nei congressi dell'Associazione italiana biblioteche diventò obbligatorio portare la camicia nera, divisa del Partito fascista, ma le fotografie della sala del convegno nel 1934 e nel 1940 mostrano che solo pochi bibliotecari la indossavano, o indossavano l'uniforme degli impiegati dello Stato introdotta nel 1938, mentre la maggioranza continuava a indossare i propri abiti borghesi. La fascistizzazione del mondo delle biblioteche fu soprattutto burocratica e rituale, imposta dall'esterno ma limitata ai discorsi ufficiali nei congressi e sulla rivista del Ministero, non incise in maniera rilevante sulla cultura dei bibliotecari, che cercarono di contrastarla in maniera coperta o di ignorarla. ; The article does not try to deal with the more extensive theme of "fascism and libraries", library policy and the achievements of the fascist regime in this field, but aims at a understanding of the presence and positions of librarians in this stage of the history of Italian society. The fascist period is one of technical modernization of Italian libraries but also of fixation of the Italian library system. This period sees the birth, in 1930, of a professional representation of librarians (the Association of Italian librarians), and a few years earlier of a top government unit, the General Direction of Academies and Libraries (established in 1926 and still basically the same to this day), that acted as a filter between politics and the profession. The grasp of fascism among Italian librarians, in the years around the March on Rome (1922), was very limited. Many liberals considered fascism as a "lesser evil" with respect to the social tensions of 1919-1920, but the librarians who supported fascism before the March on Rome were few and of little importance. Among these were count Giuseppe Lando Passerini (1858-1932), librarian at the National Library of Florence and at the Laurenziana, and Antonio Toschi, librarian in Bologna. Not one important personality of the library world supported the Manifesto of the intellectuals of fascism (1925) written by Giovanni Gentile; few were also the supporters of the reply drafted by Benedetto Croce, but among these we find Emidio Martini, retired director of the National Library of Naples.Among the exponents of the Fascist Party we find some library administrators, such as Italo Lunelli (1891-1960) director of the Public Library of Trent and Leonardo D'Addabbo (1893-1958) director of the Consortium Library of Bari, who however did not have a significant role in the profession. The most interesting personality is Piero Zama (1886-1984), founder of the Fascist Party in Faenza and director of the Municipal Library of the city from 1920 to 1957. Zama, however, abandoned fascism because of his reactionary evolution and was subsequently persecuted.Libraries were often a sort of hideout for those contrary to fascism. Gerardo Bruni (1896-1975) and Igino Giordani (1894-1980), who had worked with don Sturzo in the Popular Party, were sent by the Vatican Library to study librarianship in America, in 1927, and later also Alcide De Gasperi, president of the Council of Ministers after the Liberation, worked in the Vatican Library. Anti-fascist high school teachers and university professors that the regime wanted to remove from teaching were often destined to state libraries: for example Bianca Ceva and Elena Valla to the National Library of Milan, the philosopher Giuseppe Rensi to the University Library of Genoa and Pilo Albertelli, Resistance hero, to the National Library of Rome.After the World Congress of Libraries and Bibliography held in Rome and Venice in 1929, the Association of Italian Librarians (from 1932 the Italian Association for Libraries, AIB) was founded, under the control of the Minister for National Education but independent of the Fascist Party. The Fascist Party formed its own Librarians' Section in the Fascist Association of Civil Servants and later in the Fascist School Association: these Associations were widely supported, due to the advantages that they offered, but they carried out no significant activities in the library field. The relative independence of the AIB from the pressure of Fascism was made possible through the prestige of its president, the politician and professor Pier Silverio Leicht, and through the General Direction of Academies and Libraries, that controlled the library sector and limited as much as possible any political and ideological interference.The directors of state libraries who were not in favour of fascism usually remained in their positions, but in the 1930s the membership card of the National Fascist party became necessary for civil servants and some anti-fascist librarians lost their posts. Among these were Pietro Zorzanello, director of the Palatine Library of Parma, in 1934 and Anita Mondolfo, director of the National Library of Florence, in 1937. Jewish librarians were dismissed by the State in 1938. Many anti-fascist librarians preferred to take out a membership card of the National Fascist Party and remain in their positions, where they were able to work for libraries and, from the end of the 1930s, for their protection from the risks and dangers of the war.From 1934 it became obligatory to wear a black shirt, the uniform of the Fascist Party, in the national conferences of the Italian Library Association, but photographs of the convention hall in 1934 and 1940 show that only a few librarians wore it. A number wore the uniform of the civil service, introduced in 1938, but the majority continued to wear their own civilian clothes. The fascistization of the library world was above all bureaucratic and ritual, imposed from the outside but limited to official speeches in congresses and on the Ministry journal. It did not leave much of a mark on the culture of the librarians, who sought to counter it in a veiled manner or at least to ignore it.

The document analyzes the critical issues that inform the Italian State Public Library System, and identifies the priorities for intervention and the consequent actions to perform. It was approved by the Superior Council of the Italian Ministry of Cultural and Natural Heritage on November 13th, 2017 (http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/multimedia/MiBAC/documents/1519211234845_Resoconto_CSBCP_13_novembre_2017.pdf).