(established by Resolution of the Academic Senate of 23 February 2010 and Resolution of the Board of Directors of 26 February 2010)
Article 1 – Establishment
1. Within the Documentation and Research Centre on the History of the School Textbook and Children’s Literature (hereinafter Research Centre), established by Rectoral Decree no. 475 of 20 February 2004 at the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism of the University of Macerata, the “Paolo e Ornella Ricca” School Museum (hereinafter Museum) is hereby constituted.
Article 2 – Purpose
- The purposes of the Museum are as follows:
a. to preserve, catalogue, display and make accessible – for the purposes of public use, educational enhancement and scientific research – the collections of the Research Centre;
b. to act as a Third Mission instrument of the University of Macerata through the public communication of the results of historical-educational research;
c. to acquire and preserve further library, archival, iconographic and object-based materials of historical-educational interest;
d. to provide scientific support to census projects concerning teaching collections and historical-educational materials held at schools in the Province of Macerata;
e. to promote a national network of school museums based on the census carried out by the Permanent Observatory of Education Museums and Research Centres on Historical-Educational Heritage (OPeN.MuSE), established within the Museum on 9 April 2014;
f. to collaborate with the museums of the aforementioned network in order to promote projects and initiatives aimed at the census, collection, preservation and enhancement of the national historical-educational heritage;
g. to raise awareness among the school community and civil society regarding historical-educational heritage through targeted initiatives such as:
cultural initiatives: guided tours, exhibitions, events, festivals, competitions, etc.;
lifelong learning initiatives: seminars, workshops, master’s programmes and internships;
publishing initiatives (catalogues, museum series, educational booklets, etc.);
cultural outreach and public communication initiatives through mass media and new social networks;
h. to communicate historical-educational heritage to different target audiences: primary and secondary school pupils; university students; teachers in training and in service; families; the elderly; persons with sensory and intellectual disabilities; foreign visitors; the general public and/or cultural tourists, etc.
Article 3 – Heritage Collections
- The heritage preserved and displayed by the Museum consists of library, archival-documentary and “object-based” materials. The latter definition refers to all material evidence of education in its various forms, spheres and contexts (formal, non-formal and informal) in which it has historically taken place in Italy. In this sense, a distinction can be made between:
1.a: materials of historical-school interest, i.e. relating to the history of the Italian school, including: classroom furniture and fittings, textbooks, school registers, school notebooks and diaries, items belonging to a pupil’s kit, writing instruments, pedagogical aids (Montessori, Fröbel materials, etc.), teaching aids for the various sciences, photographs, wall charts and geographical maps, materials for school meals, games and toys for recreational activities and after-school care, and other objects for school use;
1.b: materials of historical-educational interest, i.e. relating to the history of education in Italy and connected to the culture of education but also, for example, to the culture of childhood and/or youth, family culture, or religious culture, etc.
- The collections and holdings displayed in the Museum are based on the original donation of the Ricca couple, Paolo and Ornella, to which new object-based, archival-documentary and bibliographic collections continue to be added, arriving at the Research Centre and/or the Museum through donation, purchase, loan for use, and/or other means.
- Management of the library and archival collections falls under the Coordinator of the Research Centre, who may decide to rely, in this function, on the work of the Museum Director, the Museum Deputy Director and/or another member of the Council of Research Centre Members formally identified for this purpose.
- Management of the object-based museum collections falls under the Museum Director, who proposes and evaluates the acquisition of further items based on the following criteria:
– sustainability.
– consistency with the Museum’s mission;
– nature and quality of the existing collections;
Article 4 – Inventory of the Museum Heritage
- The inventorying of object-based museum collections (as referred to in Art. 3, paragraph 4), primarily functional to the Museum’s mission and layout, is coordinated by the Museum Director and agreed upon and carried out in close collaboration with the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism of the University of Macerata.
Article 5 – Premises
- The School Museum is located in the premises assigned to the Research Centre.
Article 6 – Operation
- To achieve its purposes, the School Museum makes use of:
a. tenured professors and researchers who are members of the Research Centre;
b. graduating students, trainees, scholarship holders, PhD candidates, interns and scholars from the University itself (and/or from other Italian and foreign universities and research centres), who carry out activities on behalf of the Museum within the limits of their respective fields and research interests, as well as Universal Civil Service volunteers;
c. technical-administrative and library staff of the Department of Education Sciences and Training and of other structures of the University of Macerata, subject to their favourable opinion.
Article 7 – Governing Bodies
- The governing bodies of the Museum are the Director and the Museum Council.
- The Museum Director is appointed by the Academic Senate on the proposal of the Coordinator of the Research Centre and subject to the favourable opinion of the Museum Council. The Director’s term of office is three years and may be renewed only once.
- The Director performs the following functions:
a) manages scientific and institutional relations with University bodies and structures, with other universities and other institutions, in pursuit of the purposes set out in Article 2;
b) manages the Museum’s object-based heritage, proposing and evaluating proposals for the acquisition of such collections;
c) organises the Museum’s exhibition, educational, cultural and scientific activities, in accordance with the programming approved by the Museum Council;
d) manages the Museum’s external communications, including through digital channels.
- The Director appoints a Deputy Director chosen from among the members of the Council, who assists the Director in carrying out their duties and replaces the Director in case of absence or temporary incapacity.
The Museum Council coincides with the Council of Research Centre Members. The Council performs the following functions:
- issues a favourable opinion, upon proposal of the Coordinator of the Research Centre, regarding the appointment of the Museum Director;
- approves the programming of activities for the following year;
- approves the year-end activity report, to be sent to the University Offices also for the purposes of evaluating the Third Mission activities of the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism. The Museum Council meets at least once a year.
Article 8 – Reference to other Regulations
For anything not provided for in this Regulation, reference is made to the Statute of the Research Centre, the Regulation of the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, and the Statute and Regulations of the University of Macerata.
Macerata, 1 September 2023
The Director of the Documentation and Research Centre on the History of the School Textbook and Children’s Literature
(Prof. Roberto Sani)