Letters | Wednesday, 19 August 2009

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The recent publication of Renzo Piano’s designs for City Gate, Parliament and the theatre site brought with it debate as one would have expected. It is not the intention of the Friends of the National Archives to comment on the project and its architectural merits. We do, however, want to comment on the inclusion in the designs of a space for Parliament’s archives. This was reported by more than one local newspaper. Parliament’s archives are currently covered under the National Archives Act 2005. One does however augur that if Parliament will in future have a purpose-built archive, it would be feasible to amend the Archives Act and give autonomy to Parliament’s archives. This will make it possible to house the collections beneath Parliament, manned by professional archivists, and opened up for the general public to conduct research in its rich holdings. We take this opportunity to commend the decision to plan not only an efficient Parliament building but also to endow it with a very vital functional facility – its archive. We do augur that this idea develops further. We also encourage the authorities not simply to invest in the building and the shelving but above all to plan for the provision of the human resources. Qualified archivists need to be recruited to organize and run Parliament’s archives. This is a need which is felt also in other government departments and entities, and there is already a shortage of such professionals. This is the right time for anyone interested in getting the right training to enrol on the archives and records management courses which the University of Malta will offer once more from October 2009. Anyone interested in taking up training for this challenging profession is to contact the Division of Library, Archive and Information Studies at the University of Malta.

Max Farrugia President Friends of the National Archives

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