Priceless books, dating back to the time of the Knights of St John, are rotting away because the National Library in Valletta does not have any money to restore these precious documents.
Hundreds of books, most shelved in the library's main reading room, are crying out for restoration. For all those who walk into the library the pitiful situation speaks volumes: tattered book spines, detached pages and insect drillings.
But the library does not have a budget to restore the books and special machinery it had was moved to the Bighi restoration centre 10 years ago. Since the move, in fact, the National Library could only carry out minor repairs, such as fixing spines and book cleaning but no major restoration was done on any of the books, sources pointed out.
The library would have to pay for restoration at the Bighi centre, the sources said, but had been left without funding and adequate equipment.
The Education Ministry's coordinator for library projects, Henry Cachia, confirmed that there was no specific budget for restoration at the National Library.
However, a spokesman for the minister said: "The Library Department, when allocating the funds voted to it in the national Budget, always devotes a portion for book restoration." He did acknowledge that more needed to be done.
The state of the books bears this out. Though most of the library's 750,000 books are in a good state, there are hundreds of old tomes - dating between the 16th and 18th centuries - that are literally turning into dust.
Mr Cachia said: "The process is time-consuming, expensive and requires specialised expertise... If the National Library had the specialised equipment (and personnel) it would certainly be able to carry out major restoration work".
And some of the equipment is not all that expensive. A so-called casting machine, which could help fill in tears and insect-burrowed holes, costs €10,000.
Luckily, there are silver linings. The Lions Club Sliema has embarked on a National Library Book Restoration Project expected to be officially launched today in collaboration with Heritage Malta.
The salvage operation will start with the €9,000 restoration of three books from the Hortus Romanus, an eight volume collection of valuable botanical engravings published between 1772 and 1793. The National Library has seven of the eight volumes and it is believed that no library in the world holds all eight editions. One of the three books has already been restored after being sponsored by the club that wants to set the example to entice other companies and individuals to sponsor a book.
"Different books will need different restoration processes and the cost will vary... For this reason a list of books needing restoration will show an estimate of the cost for the sponsors to choose from," Lions Club Sliema's project chairman Victor Borg Barthet said.
"Every book has a history... This history will now include the name of the person who shouldered the expense of preserving it for posterity," he said explaining that a small label will mark the identity of the book's benefactor.
Incoming Lions Club Sliema president Alfred Micallef Attard said the club was committed to fulfilling its civic role.
Throughout the years it has sponsored various long-term projects that included the restoration of frescos at St Agatha catacombs in Rabat, the initiation of the organ donation campaign in 1993 and the eye bank in 2003.
Anyone interested in saving a book, or more, can contact the Lions Club Sliema on 9948 5696.