Magazzini Digitali

The origins of the project and the relative legislation

The source of inspiration to experiment with technological infrastructure and organisational models for the long-term conservation of digital material in the library sector is current legislation regarding the legal deposit of documents of cultural interest (Law no. 106/2004 and Presidential Decree no. 252/2006, regarding the implementation of the law).

It should be noted that the legislation established by Law no. 106/2004 is exclusively for culture-related purposes. A distinction should therefore be made from “legally compliant conservation” provided for by Legislative Decree no. 82/2005 (CAD – Digital Administration Code), art. 44 – as amended by Legislative Decree no. 217/2017 -, which establishes the requirements for the conservation of “electronic documents”, defined by the Code as electronic documents containing the digital representation of acts, facts or information of legal relevance.

• At the end of 2006, in compliance with art. 37, paragraph 2 of Presidential Decree no. 252/2006, which provides for voluntary forms of experimentation in terms of the legal depositing of documentation disseminated via digital network, the BncF and the BNCR, with the contribution of the FRD (Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale – Digital Renaissance Foundation), implemented a prototype of the Magazzini Digitali.
• On 19 January 2010, the BncF, the BNCR – both national legal deposit libraries -, the BNM – a regional legal deposit library – and the FRD undersigned a letter of intent for the creation of infrastructure for a national service for the legal deposit of digital publications.
• 14 July 2011 saw the signing of an agreement between the General Directorate for Libraries and Cultural Institutes (DGBIC) and leading associations representing the publishing sector (AIE, FIEG, and USPI, as well as MEDIACOOP and ANES, which joined later) to commence the full experimentation of the legal deposit of born-digital materials.
• Experimentation of the infrastructure and procedures for deposit took place between 2012 and 2017, with positive results.

From the project to the service

The legal deposit of documents disseminated via digital network is not a mandatory requirement

In the run-up to the implementation of technical regulations regarding methods for the depositing of documentation disseminated via digital network provided for by art. 37, paragraph 1 of Presidential Decree 252/2006, which is expected to introduce mandatory depositing, the infrastructure of the Magazzini Digitali has continued to develop, adapting to technical and cultural evolutions that render the conservation of digital documentation a de-facto necessity.

• In March 2018, the BncF implemented a service for the gathering and conservation of websites (Web archiving)
• ), drawing inspiration from large-scale international organisations dedicated to memory.
• July 2018 saw the reconfirmation of the letter of intent between BncF, BNCR and BNM (the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale had been closed down in the meantime).
• In 2023, the BncF joined the CINECA Interuniversity Consortium, with a view to improving and implementing long-term conservation and access services for digital scientific research materials produced by Italian universities and research centres, first and foremost doctoral theses.

Depositing, conservation and accessibility of resources

In general, the Magazzini Digitali conserve and render accessible two types of resource:

• Born-digital resources acquired through legal or voluntary deposit by the National Central Libraries (art. 1, paragraph 4 of Law 106/2004 and arts. 31 and 37 of Presidential Decree 252/2006).
• Digital resources produced as part of digitalisation projects concerning the collections of libraries and cultural institutions, limited to high-definition copies (master copies) in accordance with the terms set out in the letter issued by the then Directorate General for Library Heritage dated 6 August 2007, prot. 17221, “projects funded or co-funded by the BDI – Italian Digital Library”. These projects include, for example, digitalisation activities related to the Google Books Project.

Depositing

There are two methods for the depositing of born-digital documents, as described below.

Automatic harvesting: this is the preferred method for the legal deposit of freely accessible resources published on the internet. Harvesting may take place either through OAI-PMH protocol or other standard Web archiving procedures.

The types of objects that can be harvested, if they possess the necessary technical requirements, are:

• open-access e-journals
• open-access e-books
• websites

Use the “Contacts” below for information on how to sign up for the service.

Digital transmission: this is the method used for digital documents that are either not published on the internet or that are not freely accessible. This category includes e-books and e-journals with DRM or other restrictions to access or use.

Deposit by digital transmission is not currently available.

Conservation

Long-term conservation of resources is guaranteed through infrastructure and procedures in line with the principles and functional models of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) – ISO 14721:2021.

Access

Archived materials can be searched for via the BncF online catalogue (OPAC) and the BncF collection on Archive-it.
Access to archived resources is guaranteed first and foremost through the internal networks of the BncF and the BNCR (with the exception of embargoed doctoral theses until expiry of the relative restrictions).
However, access via public network may be blocked or restricted for a determined period in compliance with regulations regarding copyright (Law no. 633/1941 as amended) and privacy (GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation), as well as with the restrictions provided for by the Italian Code of Cultural and Landscape Heritage (Legislative Decree no. 42/2004 as amended) and any contractual restrictions imposed by content and service providers.

Status of the service and relative data

Open-access e-journals on the OJS platform

As of 2010, universities and other organisations or institutions responsible for open-access scientific periodicals published on the OJS platform have voluntarily chosen to deposit these resources by subscribing to the Magazzini Digitali automatic harvesting service via OAI-PMH.
There are approximately 200 archived periodicals, and the relative articles may be searched via the online catalogues (OPAC) of the BncF and the BNCR and accessed through the internal networks of the two National Central Libraries.
The service for the harvesting via OAI-PMH of periodicals published on the OJS platform has been suspended for the time being

Closed-access e-books and e-journals

Approximately 500 closed-access e-books and e-journals were collected between 2012 and 2017 as a result of agreements with publishers.
The service has been suspended for the time being and the archived resources are not available for public access

Websites and other online resources

As of 2018, the library periodically archives more than 500 websites and other forms of internet content of cultural interest.
The archived websites are available for public access from the BncF Collection on Archive-it.
For further information, please visit the Archiving web page.

Archive of doctoral theses

Pursuant to the provisions of Italian Law no. 382/1980 as amended, doctoral theses defended in Italian universities must be deposited at the two National Central Libraries of Florence and Rome, which render these documents accessible in accordance with current legislation.

Since 2010, Italian universities have had the option of depositing doctoral theses in either printed or digital format, initially by sending a CD or DVD-ROM, then later through automatic acquisition.

In 2023, the National Central Library of Florence (BncF) joined the CINECA Interuniversity Consortium, with a view to improving and implementing long-term conservation and access services for digital scientific research materials produced by Italian universities and research centres. As part of this collaboration, which promises to be extensive and long-lasting, the first service to be set up concerns the creation of a new system for the depositing and accessing of doctoral theses, which has been available since July 2024.
All the information regarding the new procedures for the depositing of and access to doctoral theses can be found on the dedicated page.

NBN - National Bibliography Number

In its role as the main manager of the Magazzini Digitali service, the National Central Library of Florence is also the organisation responsible for issuing National Bibliography Numbers (NBN) for digital publications subject to legal or voluntary deposit.

An NBN is a persistent identifier based on the URN (Uniform Resource Name) standard that specifically identifies a determined publication, allowing for the efficient location of resources archived on the internet while also favouring the authentication of the relative resource, its provenance and the relative exploitation rights.
The service for the issuing of NBNs is currently restricted to doctoral theses

NBN Resolver

The BncF provides an NBN Resolver service for the verification and resolution of NBNs assigned to articles in periodicals subject to voluntary deposit: https://nbn.depositolegale.it/

Please note that the syntax for NBN identifiers, type URN:NBN:<ISO 3166 country code>:<sub-namespace code>-<assigned NBN string> is in accordance with RFC 3188, which states that:

• <sub-namespace code> corresponds to the code assigned to the institution.
• <assigned NBN string> is an incremental unique identifier that provides no information on the resource it is assigned to, the date said resource was deposited or the pointer to the relative original Resource Identifier.

Links and other useful resources

• Copies archived by the website depositolegale.it
• BncF NBN Resolver

Contacts

Chiara Storti | Supervisor Magazzini Digitali and Web Archiving
bnc-fi.magazzinidigitali@cultura.gov.it
chiara.storti@cultura.gov.it
tel. (+39) 055 24919 73