How the reading rooms work

Admission to the reading rooms.
Requesting material.
Consultation of documents.
Search costs.
Microfilm.
Photocopies.

Photographic studio

Admission to the reading rooms.
Readers admitted to the reading rooms must first of all leave any bags in the cloakrooms, equipped with lockable lockers.
Admission to the reading rooms is granted until all available seats are taken. The chairs available for readers cannot be moved.
Readers admitted to the reading rooms for the first time that year are required to fill in the appropriate admissions application form. On subsequent admissions they must identify themselves to the reading room staff.
The use of mobile telephones is not allowed in the reading rooms; similarly, it is forbidden to eat or drink or introduce animals.
It is absolutely forbidden to smoke in any part of the Archives whatsoever.
In the reading rooms, readers, whether they are admitted for the first time or whether they are consulting material already available to them, must first contact the member of staff responsible who will assign them a numbered desk, bearing in mind their relative consulting needs (large formats, personal computers etc.). Readers are required to sit at the desk assigned them.
Readers are invited not to crowd around the staff enquiry desk. A red light flashing on the desk assigned informs readers that the material requested has arrived and invites them to go to the staff desk.
Readers should address reading room staff only and not hand in requests directly to the book handlers.

Requesting material.
Request forms must be filled in at the desk assigned to the reader.
Readers can ask for up to 3 archival items per day.
Requests for material kept on site and presented by 14.00 will be brought up as soon as possible. Requests presented after that time will be delivered the next day by 9.00.
Requests for material kept in other stores will be delivered over the following days depending on office programming.
Being employed by the Comune di Torino does not exonerate a reader from filling in the request forms.

Consultation of documents.
The documents can be consulted only at the desk assigned.
It is absolutely forbidden to alter in any way and by any means the state of the documents under consultation and the furnishings. It is likewise forbidden to add any annotations or cross-references to the documents or to alter the order. The reader must immediately make known any eventual lack or erroneous collocation of the material requested.
When consultation has terminated, the archival material must be handed back to the reading room staff, together with the relative request form. If consultation of the same archival item extends over more than one sitting, the reader must place the material consigned to him in the appropriate lockers every time, together with the relative request form: material not consulted for a period of more than 15 days will be returned to storage.
Collections in the course of reorganisation or being inventoried are not available for
consultation.

Search costs.
In accordance with the resolution of the Mayoral Council dated 10 May 1994 n. mecc. 9403698/02 (integrated with the resolution G.M. 14 November 2000 n. mecc. 2000 09879/49) searches made "for certified study reasons" are carried out free of charge. Readers must thus auto-certify on the request forms, on their own responsibility, the reasons why they are carrying out their research.
For free-of-charge searches carried out for personnel employed by the Comune di Torino for work purposes, the person requesting the search must auto-certify, on his own responsibility, these purposes on the appropriate form.

Microfilm.
Microfilmed documents must be consulted using the appropriate viewers and cannot be consulted in their original form, unless there are justified reasons relating to the nature of the research.
Use of the viewer for consulting microfilms must first be reserved: this should be done with the reading room staff.

Photocopies.
Where permitted and limited to a small number of copies, photocopies can be made immediately, unless the reading room staff deem it not possible. In this case the reader will be asked to return the next day to collect them. If the number of copies requested is particularly large, several different consignment times may be established.
It is forbidden to photostatically reproduce documents on parchment, that are bound or that are in a precarious condition, as well as drawings, plans and projects and all documents prior to 1900.
To this end, readers are asked not to insist with their requests, since they will not be carried out.
Large format heliographic copies and large format photocopies that involve the transfer of the originals to be reproduced to an external heliographer can be carried out, prior to reservation, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 14.30.
The loan of photostatic copies of 'Progetti Edilizi' [Building Projects] on ordinary, large format paper for heliographic reproduction, is permitted upon submission of an identity document.

Photographic studio.

The photographic studio is available for readers, prior to reservation, from Mondays to Fridays with the following timetable: 9.00-12.30 and 13.30-16.00.
To avoid an excessive build up of documents removed from consultation, no more than 20 archival units can be photographed at any one time, whether they are progressively put aside during research or whether they are specifically requested. In the latter case the reading room staff will reserve a photographic slot after a time lapse proportional to the number of documents requested, but no more than a week, unless the studio is not available.
For particularly fragile or rare material, a professional photographer might have to be called in.
The detailed costs and norms regulating use of the photographic archive are listed on the page describing the Photographic Library.