The professional certification of archivists has long been a matter of great interest for the ANAI, which has set up a special working group in this connection.¹ Formally created in October 2001,² the group addresses the need to identify rules for the certification of professional archivists in Italy. In accordance with the indications of the European Union and the desire to provide a system capable both of ensuring conditions of adequate professional expertise and of avoiding the performance of archival work by persons lacking the requisite skills and hence bringing the profession into discredit and disrepute, the group carried out an initial survey of the situation at the international level.³  Analysis of the systems of professional certification launched outside Italy—and already well-established in countries like France and the USA—provided an interesting cross-section and some initial working stimuli.⁴

The model under construction should furnish a standard job description taking into account a series of prerequisites in the areas of education & training and professional experience.

This will make it possible to certify professionals possessing at least some of these requisites at various levels.

As regards professional experience, a descriptive list of certifiable activities has been drawn up, not least in the light of the fruitful theoretical rethinking focused in recent years on the very cornerstones of archival science and professional skills. As regards education and training, some members of the group undertook a painstaking investigation and analysis of the possibilities available in the archival field in 2002. The work carried out to identify the requisite qualifications for admission will soon be suitably updated and used to define threshold levels of entrance of the areas of reference.

In agreement with the national governing body of the ANAI, the members of the group suggest the creation of a certification board to which professional archivists can submit their qualifications on a voluntary basis.

Archivists wishing to obtain certification by virtue of their educational background and professional skills and experience will be required to present suitable documentation attesting to the qualifications held and activities performed in accordance with criteria and procedures laid down by the board.

The introduction of a points system for the assessment of archivists by the board is regarded as a good idea. The awarding of points linked to objective parameters such as academic qualifications and the performance of skilled tasks would in fact appear the best way to ensure an objective and streamlined assessment procedure.

 

The list of certifiable activities

The final result of the initial phase was the drafting of a list of certifiable activities in table form.

Each activity is accompanied by a short description and a range of values for the number of points that candidates can be awarded in relation to the specific task or operation. The activities are arranged in technical-conceptual areas covering a total of ten “sectors” in which a description is given of the various archival tasks including preparatory operations, developing the correct approach, the phases of records management, and the creation of archival tools.

In order to obtain certification in the professional sector it is necessary to reach the minimal threshold set in at least one of the followed areas:

2 (Arrangement and Cataloguing)

3 (Census)

4 (Archive Management)

5 (Current Records)⁵

It is also considered advisable that the certification procedure should give some indication of the areas in which the archivist concerned is most skilled. To this end, a periodically updated grid will be prepared showing the sectors in which certification has been achieved.

The document was drawn up in principle so as to allow space for the greatest possible number of descriptions of tasks and activities, broken down into basic elements so as to make certification possible at the most varied and disparate levels of activity and enable candidates for certification to find the items corresponding most closely to the tasks actually performed.⁶

Regarded as anything but definitive, the proposed list of certifiable activities is open to expansion through the addition of further descriptions and still awaits testing on the actual CVs of archivists.

On completion of the document bringing the initial stage of the work to a close, we wish to thank the colleagues forming part of the working group as well as Giorgetta Bonfiglio-Dosio, Paola Carucci and Maria Guercio, who undertook to read through the drafts and were most generous in offering encouragement and comments, which have been taken amply into consideration in the present version of the text.

The list of activities was drawn up by Concetta Damiani, Fabio del Giudice, Ferruccio Ferruzzi, Augusta Franco, Massimiliano Grandi, Michela Guancini, Anna Guastalla, Sara Guiati, Luca Juretig, Lorenzo Maggi, Laura Marconi, Giovanna Mattino, Lucia Nardi, Susanna Oreffice, Enrica Ormanni, Sara Piccolo, Luigia Romani, Barbara Sablich, Silvia Trani, Federico Valacchi and Gilberto Zacchè.

The work of revision and preparation of the final draft was undertaken by Concetta Damiani, Massimiliano Grandi, Michela Guancini, Anna Guastalla, Lorenzo Maggi, Susanna Oreffice, Barbara Sablich and Gilberto Zacchè.

 

Notes

1) For further information, see ‘Gli archivi e la libera professione’, Il Mondo degli Archivi , X/2-3(2002), p. 103-136 (articles by L. NARDI, A. FRANCO, M. GRANDI, L. ROMANI, B. SABLICH, S. TRANI, F. VALACCHI); S. OREFFICE, ‘Requisiti per l’esercizio della professione archivistica: i problemi della certificazione’, Archivi e Computer , 2(2002), p. 46-51; L. NARDI, ‘La certificazione in ambito archivistico’, Il Mondo degli Archivi , XII/1-2(2004), p. 95-96.

2) Composed of freelance archivists, state archivists and archivists employed by public bodies, the group was set up by Lucia Nardi and directed by her until 2003, followed by Gilberto Zacchè (2003-2004) and Concetta Damiani (2005-). Those taking part in the group so far include Daniela Brignone, Andrea Calzolari, Federica Collorafi, Vincenzo De Meo, Fabio Del Giudice, Ferruccio Ferruzzi, Augusta Franco, Massimiliano Grandi, Michela Guancini, Anna Guastalla, Sara Guiati, Luca Juretig, Lorenzo Maggi, Laura Marconi, Giovanna Mattino, Susanna Oreffice, Enrica Ormanni, Sara Piccolo, Luigia Romani, Barbara Sablich, Enrica Serinaldi, Marta Tortorella, Silvia Trani and Federico Valacchi.

3) The desire to address what could be described as a need internal to the archival community was accompanied by awareness that the definition of parameters for some professions connected with cultural heritage was becoming a matter of some urgency also in terms of national legislation. It is indeed no coincidence that the creation of the ANAI working group was paralleled by efforts on the part of librarians, documentalists, and art historians to set up similar groups with a view to developing professional profiles.

4) For further information on the situation in the different countries, readers are referred to the reports of the working group published in the relevant section of the ANAI website: http://www.anai.org/attivita/N_gruppi/certificazione_docum.htm (consulted on 15 December 2005).

5) To ensure that the need for the practical application of professional skills is adequately met.

6) For these reasons, for example, points 6.7-6.11 of area 6 (devoted to the creation of archival tools) comprise what appear to be all the possible elements and combinations thereof connected with archival tools for classification and conservation. Similarly, in the case of the regulations, points 6.12-6.14 cover three different possibilities, the first all-inclusive and the others linked to specific sectors and activities.

 

 

Maximum total: 618.5 points