What's the 21st century archivist like?

The International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (CITRA) is meeting in Malta between tomorrow and Saturday. The theme of the conference is Imagining The 21st Century Archivist: New Strategies For Education And Training.

The annual convention brings together directors of national archival institutions, presidents of national professional associations, and chairs of members of the International Council on Archives sections and committees.

The choice of Malta as the seat of this prestigious conference is the result of a lot of hard work carried out during the past 10 years by Charles Farrugia, the National Archivist.

Malta has a long-standing tradition when it comes to archival holdings, with the oldest records on the islands going back to the 12th century.

It has had a number of archivists who made a name for themselves in the international sphere.

Names that immediately spring to mind are those of Don Giovanni Pietro Agius de Soldanis, who in the 18th century carried out archival work for the Order of the Knights of Malta in Rome and eventually became the first librarian/archivist of their national library in Malta.

Another such name is that of Dom Mauro Inguanez, who for four decades of the 20th century was archivist of the world renowned Abbey of Montecassino, Italy.

Being held at the Intercontinental Hotel in St Julians, the conference will be attended by over 230 delegates from 91 nations. Some 40 speakers will address the gathering. The public is invited to a talk at the Intercontinental Hotel by Victoria Borg-O'Flaherty, Director of the National Archives of St Kitts-Nevis, with the theme De Poincy's Sugar Island: At What Cost? The talk on Friday will start at 6 p.m.