“An essential public service must be guaranteed”

The Imola section of the State Archives is moving towards closure and the trade union world protests. “The FP Cgil Bologna and the CISL FP Metropolitan Area of ​​Bologna – we read in a note – express their dismay regarding the closure of the branch of the archive in Imola, announced by the director of the State Archives of Bologna, on which the Imola branch depends.

Like all the territorial offices of the Ministry of Culture, the Imola archive has been suffering for years from a very serious shortage of staff, reported several times by the trade unions. The archives, as well as the libraries, museums and all the MiC offices constitute a precious cultural and institutional presence in the territories and their closure represents a defeat for the entire Ministry. The archives preserve documents that guarantee the preservation of the memory of our cities and institutions and offer an essential public service that must be guaranteed both for citizens and for the scholars and professionals who frequent it. It is known that the headquarters currently in use in Imola presents significant critical issues both in relation to the conservation of documentation and in relation to management costs, as it is rented in a private structure. Precisely because archives offer a public service declared essential, the logic of management costs as a single parameter for deciding whether to keep an office open or close it is not acceptable. It should also be noted that the Imola archive, although not open every day, presents important numbers in terms of users of the office which could certainly grow further with a more substantial staff and further new hires. The increase in staff would also make it possible to extend the archive’s opening hours and increase the educational offering to the school community in the Imola area. Imola is one of the main cultural, economic and tourist centers of the metropolitan city of Bologna and of our region and it is not admissible to resolve the Imola issue by closing the archive without seeking an alternative solution. The FP CGIL Bologna and the CISL FP Metropolitan Area of ​​Bologna ask for a joint effort by the director of the State Archives of Bologna and the institutions to create a common working table, to which the social partners are ready to give their contribution, to look for new spaces and solutions that can respond to the needs of the citizens of Imola. The FP Cgil Bologna and the CISL FP Metropolitan Area of ​​Bologna therefore ask for a concrete commitment from the General Directorate of Archives to avoid the closure of the Imola archive and to activate, in concert with the Directorate of the State Archives of Bologna, all the possible resources to create that synergy between state and local institutions functional to keeping the Imola branch open and renewing its planning and ability to offer services to the public”.