A call for proposals to digitise Department of Information film footage covering events held between the late 1950s and 1979 was launched yesterday.
Information director Emanuel Abela said yesterday this was a project the department was undertaking together with the National Archives.
Interested parties are being invited to submit detailed proposals on: an inventory of all DOI archived film footage; conversion of all film footage to digital format and cataloguing of the digitised product.
All film footage, in its present state as well as in digital format, will remain the property of the government.
Submissions are to reach the Director of Information at 3, Castille Place, Valletta by November 30.
Mr Abela said the initiative formed part of the celebrations marking the department's 50th anniversary.
The DOI's 16mm films, which started being taken even before the establishment of national television, were historic and unique but there was a danger they would be lost if not preserved, he said.
Cooperation between the DOI and the National Archives, he added, was based on reciprocal confidence and the National Archives have already been given a copy of all the photographs taken by the DOI.
National Archivist Charles Farrugia said Malta's archiving history dated back some 30 years and the country's first archive was housed at Casa Leoni, in Santa Venera.
He said the university has agreed to launch diploma and BA courses in archiving and preserving records as from the next scholastic year.
The collaboration with the DOI, he said, was an example of the sort of cooperation the agency needed to have with all government departments.
Principal Permanent Secretary Godwin Grima promised his assistance in the project. He said he will not tolerate departments or even different sections within a department working on their own rather than together.
The public service, he said, had to change where necessary but not just for the sake of changing. It had to react to the legitimate needs of the people.
The public service, Dr Grima insisted, should not fear going into partnership with the private sector when this was beneficial to the public.
The DOI has launched a digital production of a feature film incorporating some of its historic films.
Former scriptwriter Pawlu Aquilina presented Mr Abela with original scripts of The Young Listener and other scripts. These will now be presented to the National Archives.
Another initiative forming part of the 50th anniversary programme is an exhibition of old photographs and other media to be inaugurated at St James Cavalier, in Valletta on Sunday.