Management of government archives in Italy

The research has affirmed the value of archives among other cultural objects because archives are a vital part of the national identity, but not just that. In fact, the good management of the res publica and an efficient administration pass through the proper documents conservation as the life source of government bodies. Starting from an archival perspective, the research object points to archives as institutions and offices of Public Administration rather than the peculiarity of the documentation which they preserve. Therefore, the analysis is focused on the internal organisational structures where the two souls of archives - one administrative and one cultural - came to light. In this sense, archives are a point of intersection of multiple issues for their intrinsic nature. The work is based on a literature review in order to contextualise Italian archives in the international scenario. The comparative analysis focused especially on the UK reality and the consecutive case study performed in Tuscany allowed the definition of the paths should be covered in order to improve national government archives. The research allowed the possibility to improve the management of archival structures starting from the strength of the national system, as the presence of a legislation with a good basis on the archival theory. In this context, the archive director emerged as the figure able to synthesise the archival knowledge and the managerial skills, aware of the necessity to coordinate multiple professional background and technological resources. This figure is the one who can put in practice the optimisation of what is defined as the archive management starting from the deep knowledge of the ongoing reality and thanks to the cooperation with the Superintendencies. In the light of above, a conclusion is the announcement of the need to design a plan of continuing professional development in archive management for administrative staff as well as for legislators, accepting the dynamicity of current scenarios and with the goal to improve national government archives.