Maria Iannotti is the new director of the National Library of Naples

Maria Iannotti is the new director of the Vittorio Emanuele III National Library in Naples, one of the most important libraries in Italy, at a difficult time due to the severe reduction of staff in service, lack of turnover and the limitations imposed by the pandemic.

With a degree in philosophy, specializing in Library Science and in the techniques of research and enhancement of Electronic Bibliographic and Documentary Resources, she has worked on the staff of the Neapolitan library for almost forty years, and since 2018 has been the institute’s deputy director, as well as a reference for the library’s strategic choices and cultural activities in recent years, marked by alternating directorates and interim appointments.

“The priority commitment in the coming months,” said the newly appointed director, "will be to bring the Library back to a full restoration of ordinary activity, with the extension ofopening hours andexpansion of services. The library in recent years has had to deal with the dynamics of the emergency imposed by the pandemic, which have required logistical-organizational adjustment and have seen digital resources in the forefront of responding to user needs; during this period, among other things, there has been an increase in purchases of ebooks in our Institute’s online catalog. We will work further in this direction to optimize the reservation service and to make the library more accessible for both reading and research and study, taking advantage of all the potential offered by technology and also planning a new layout of the spaces."

Maria Iannotti has long organized and directed the Reference Service of the National Library of Naples, and coordinated projects to improve services to the public; she was part of the working group related to the Google Books project, under the agreement signed between MIBAC and Google Ireland Limited.

Particularly attentive to social dynamics and relations with the territory, she was a Component of the Labor and Professions Observatory and of the Campania ERC for the Italian Library Association: Responsible for the Project Alternanza Scuola Lavoro (now PTCO), she oversaw relations with the area’s High Schools, identifying training paths in consultation with the heads of the schools themselves. She was also in charge of the Women’s Subjectivity Fund, a point of reference in the research and study of sexual difference due to the presence of documents that are difficult to find elsewhere, offering specialized documentary and bibliographic tools to users.

In the past year, the deputy director of the National Library has also been joined by the position of Head of the Lucchesi Palli Section, a valuable library collection specializing in the performing arts.

Maria Iannotti is the new director of the National Library of Naples

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