THE PROJECT. STRUCTURE AND AIMS

This site and the database it contains were produced within the ambit of the KADMOS (Kahle Documents Management, Organization and Study) project funded by the university and scientific research office of the Piedmont regional local government authority (Regione Piemonte – Direzione Università e Ricerca Scientifica), within the ambit of the Bando Scienze Umane e Sociali 2008 (announcement of competition, humanities and social sciences, 2008).

The project was devised, planned and designed by Bruno Chiesa and Maria Luisa Russo.

Objectives: inventorying, re-ordering and preservation of archive; provision of access to archive for scholars through creation of an online database, with images of the most significant parts of the archive.

The project was organised on the basis of three work packages, corresponding to three groups of homogeneous activities.

WP1: STUDY AND ORGANIZATION

Initial stage, dedicated entirely to identification, study and description of the documents and their archival organisation. The materials were, on each occasion, retrieved singly, identified, and described in terms of content by the specialist in the subject dealt with in the document. The structure of the archive was designed, and the descriptions were then transformed into archival descriptions, in accordance with ISAD (International Standard for Archival Description) procedures, thus providing a preliminary working database.

WP2: PRESERVATION

Second stage, dedicated to the state of preservation of the materials and adoption of the measures required for improving current conditions of the said materials and for preserving the same for the future. The documents and books were manually cleaned, and the materials were selected for production of the boxes and folders used, differentiated according to the typology of the documents and conforming to the latest international standards for long-term preservation (DIN ISO 9706, PAT). The archive was entirely reconditioned in the new containers. Furthermore, from the early months of the project on, dataloggers were installed in the fonds to monitor environmental conditions.

WP3: VALORIZATION

The last stage, dedicated to valorization of the fonds, included various activities, namely digitalization of the correspondence – conducted also for the purposes of preservation – and copying of the working database onto an open source software database, adapted to the specific needs of the fonds, hosting hybrid materials (in part library, and in part archive) and documents/book in non-Latin alphabets. The valorization plan terminates with publication of the website and the issuing of specific publications regarding both the KADMOS project and archive content.

Rather than the endpoint, this website is to be considered the starting point for Fondo Kahle studies. Knowledge of the materials of the fonds will expand and shall be updated on an ongoing basis. Among the various services provided, registered users will be able to submit suggestions regarding the content of the descriptions and documents. This means that the database of the Fondo Kahle can be constantly updated and supplemented with detailed information, also thanks to the contributions of users.