Gli archivi e l’archivistica tra consapevolezze, illusioni, delusioni e speranze

The practice of archival recording has undergone massive changes over the last fifteen years, mainly due to the employment of new technologies for gathering and organizing archived items. Economic and social conditions have also changed, to such an extent that state and other kinds of archives have had to struggle in order to adapt to these changes. However, this phenomenon has been part of a much wider process of diversification as regards the functioning and scope of archival structures in Italy. In 1974, the Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage was introduced, an event which was a watershed for broadening archival procedures, and which made it possible to encompass items from private-funded locales/institutions, including a dedicated section on issues of new technologies, which would change the overall context of archival recording. The Europeanization and globalization of forms of dissemination of knowledge have overturned the former setup of State Archives throughout Italy, and this article will address the phenomenon and its effects on the overall state of the art in the practice of archival recording. By taking into account different case studies in the North and South of the country, the article makes proposals for a renewed role of the archivist in State archives ahead of modern technologies.