National Archives Act to be amended

Malta is hosting the first international archives conference on the theme "Converging frontiers: Regional cooperation in the archives sector".

The conference, being held at the Le Meridien Phoenicia Hotel, in Floriana, is being organised by the Libraries and Archives Department in collaboration with the Maltese National Commission for Unesco, within the Education Ministry.

The conference was opened yesterday by Education Minister Louis Galea, who said the National Archives Act needed to be amended. Talks have been held with the National Archives Advisory Committee and the Friends of the National Archives and the draft legislation was currently being considered at ministry level.

Delegates from Italy, France, Spain, the UK, Romania, Tunisia, Poland, Scotland and Israel are attending the conference, in addition to Malta.

An exhibition of public and private documents from the archives has been mounted by the department at the National Archives, Santo Spirito, Rabat, until November 8. It is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. on Saturdays and from 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. on Sundays.

The annual lecture organised by the department will be held in the National Archives reading room on Thursday at 6.30 p.m.

Robin Alston, Professor Emeritus from the University of London, will talk about "Re-visiting old pastures: rejoicings and disappointments".