13576 - General Archive Administration

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student must have the following knowledge and skills: - Knowledge and understanding: distinguish the different stages of life of an archive and to highlight its constituent elements; know the operations and the archival tools used in each phase. - Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: be able to perform an analysis of an archival fund. carry out the archival description of a fund using one of the computer tools illustrated in the lesson. - Autonomy of judgment: know how to establish the criteria to follow in the phases of creation, management and conservation of archives, motivating their methodological choices. - Communication skills: know how to illustrate with logical rigor and terminological issues also techniques related to a specific topic. - Learning ability: know how to deepen independently the issues related to the discipline.

Course contents

The course will examine three aspects of the archival universe:

1. basic grammar of archives and archival studies
2. archives in Italy
3. the perception of archives in contemporary culture (literature, cinema, popular culture)

In this way, principles and methods of the archival discipline will be critically analyzed, notes on history of archival science, archives in contemporary society and how digital and the web have changed the tools and methods of research in archives. The course will focus in its theoretical part on the use of archival categories as a tool for interpreting documentary corpuses and historical-institutional contexts and in the practical part on the analysis of concrete case studies on archives and inventories.

Readings/Bibliography

Isabella Zanni Rosiello, Gli archivi tra passato e presente, Bologna, il Mulino, 2005, pp. 7-121

Stefano Vitali, Di angeli, di paperi e di conigli, ovvero dello strano mestiere dell'archivista in “Archivi per la storia”, 2001, pp. 179-187

Stefano Twardzik (a cura di), Introduzione allo studio dell’Archivistica, Milano, Biblion Edizioni, 2023, pp. 31-98 (capitoli 2-4)

Giorgetta Bonfiglio Dosio, Primi passi nel mondo degli archivi. Temi e testi per la formazione archivistica di primo livello, Padova, CLUEP 2023 (5^ edizione)

Recommended readings

Linda Giuva, Stefano Vitali, Isabella Zanni Rosiello, Il potere degli archivi. Usi del passato e difesa dei diritti nella società cintemporanea , Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2007

Arnaldo D’Addario, Lineamenti di storia dell’archivistica (secc. XVI-XIX), in «Archivio storico italiano», 148/1 (1990), pp. 3-35

Students who are unable to attend lessons in person will be guaranteed the opportunity to use teaching material and to replace attendance of lessons in person with the study of some supplementary texts for which the teacher ensures support for study and exam preparation.

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lectures and laboratory lessons at archival institutes. There will be visits to the State Archives of Bologna, the State Archives of Ravenna, the archives of the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna and Ravenna and other archives in the province

Assessment methods

Oral interview and preparation of a written report on the activities carried out in the archive (to be delivered one week before the exam). Knowledge of the topics discussed during the lessons and of the recommended bibliography, understanding of the use of research tools and the critical and methodological skills developed by the students will be assessed.

Teaching tools

Slides and factsheets on theoretical and institutional history, examples of digitized documentation and inventory tools will also be analyzed during the lessons to explore their use for research and interpretation of sources.

During visits to the archives, the original documents will be directly analyzed.

During the lessons, clips from films, TV series, video games and other cultural products will be analysed.

Office hours

See the website of Dario Taraborrelli