Historical photographs and audio-visual material will no longer remain stacked on a shelf at the national archives or in some library, thanks to the National Archives of Malta's national memory project.

The first of three phases of the project, which uses information technology to enable the public to see photographs of a historical nature, will be inaugurated today by President Guido de Marco at the Banca Giuratale, in Mdina.

The permanent exhibition will feature a fine collection of portraits of contemporary important personalities by photographer Tony Mangion as well as historical portraits on CDs.

These will include governors, presidents, prime ministers and other leading personalities. In certain cases, such as in that of former prime minister Gorg Borg Olivier, the CD also includes the voice of the personality.

Also included for research purposes are thousands of passport applications made after 1915. In most cases they include 6x4cm studio photos which constitute a mine of sociological and ethnographic detail. The archives have some 90,000 such applications.

Charles Farrugia, head of the National Archives, based in Rabat, said the national memory project had three main aims.

The National Archives Act of 1990 stipulated that the National Archives were responsible for the preservation of photographs and other audio and visual material held by the government. But notwithstanding this, he said, until now this part of the law had not been given the necessary importance.

The philosophy behind the project, to be completed over a three-year period, was to make one concerted effort to set up a state-of-the-art archival collection while economising on resources and avoiding duplication of initiatives.

Mr Farrugia said the second aim was to enable the archives to exhibit the historic material to the public.

The third aim was to show Malta's heritage to tourists.

Mr Farrugia said the National Archives were in possession of thousands of photographs, most of them unique, that depict the development of the Maltese islands during the last 100 years of colonial domination and the first years of Malta as an independent state. The photographs cover all aspects of public administration, showing important events in Malta's history and important buildings as they stood in the past.

The photographs will be scanned and presented for public viewing on CDs. This phase is expected to be completed by next October or November the latest. The CDs will be available for viewing at the Banca Giuratale, which is administered by the National Archives.

So far, the National Archives have already identified about 4,000 such photographs but Mr Farrugia is sure that when files submitted by the various government departments are scrutinised many more will emerge.

Historic photographs were donated to the National Archives recently by Tony Terribile who is also offering other photographs for scanning.

A more advanced phase of the project, to start next year, will deal with hundreds of film reels depicting the most salient points and events in Malta's history.

The reels, which are kept by the Department of Information, are of an official nature and record state visits and historical events.

Mr Farrugia said there was an understanding with the DOI that the material would be passed on to the National Archives. A strategy would then be worked out to transfer the footage to DVDs, he said.

Mr Farrugia appealed to the public and to private institutions to donate any historical photographs and documentation to the National Archives.

He said photographs, film footage or audio recordings of a national significance can help to build a comprehensive audio-visual national archive.

The National Archives are also seeking sponsors for the project. Phase one is sponsored by the Friends of the National Archives.

www.libraries-archives.gov.mt

charles.j.farrugia@gov.mt