Gozo section of national archives to be retained

The Gozo archives section will not be transferred to Malta, Education Minister Louis Galea and Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono have promised.

He was reacting to concerns expressed by a correspondent in The Sunday Times during a commentary on the Bill to regulate the National Archives.

Parliament started debating the bill on Tuesday, the debate continuing on Wednesday.

At the opening of the debate Dr Galea gave a historical overview of the archives sector in Malta, pointing out that Malta was fortunate to have the archives of the Order of St John and a wealth of documents from the British colonial era as well as those post independence.

This sector, he said, had seen improvement ever since a law was moved in the House by former minister Ugo Mifsud Bonnici in 1990 and the National Archives were established at the former Santo Spirito Hospital at Rabat.

Nonetheless, Malta was still in a situation where important archives were kept by different entities, with little coordination. The various entities themselves had a storage problem, a problem also being felt at Santo Spirito. A temporary measure could be to extend storage facilities to a currently unbuilt nearby site, taking care to preserve historical remains found there. His dream was that one day, a purpose-built centre for archives could be built.

He said a university course for archivists was under consideration.

Dr Galea in his speech praised the Friends of the National Archives for their hard work, securing sponsorships which had helped bring about an improvement of facilities.

The minister said the main purpose of the bill was to establish a body corporate, known as the National Archives of Malta to preserve the collective memory of the Maltese nation. The organisation would be headed by the National Archivist.

The organisation would establish and maintain the National Register of Archives; monitor record-keeping practices in public offices; acquire private records of national significance and promote the training of archivists.

The National Archivist and every employee of the National Archives would take the oath of secrecy before taking on their appointment since they could be handling confidential records.

The bill also provided that every public office should have a Records Officer who would manage current records and eventually arrange for material to be transferred to the National Archives.

Transfer of documents or records to a foreign country could only take place with ministerial approval. Dr Galea explained that there would be a National Archives Council one of whose roles would be to liaise with the National Archivist. It would promote the National Archives and other record keeping entities, facilitate collaboration between the various stakeholders involved in the archives sector and advise the minister on the management of archives. Its members would include the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, the chairman of Heritage Malta, the national librarian, a person representing non-government archives or records centres and persons familiar with archives and records management. The National Archivist would attend the meetings of the council but not vote.

In his speech Dr Galea also referred to concerns expressed in the Gozo page of The Sunday Times that the Gozo Section of the National Archives would be dismantled as a result of this legislation, insisting that was not the case at all.

Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo also underlined the importance of the national archives as the memory of the state.

He paid tribute to people who had worked on the national archives, particularly the late Hella Jean Bartolo (no relation) and Charles J. Farrugia, the current archivist.

A difficult issue, he said, was what records the National Archives should eventually retain. The bill, unfortunately, did not establish guidelines on what should be retained and what not. He would insist that such guidelines were issued, published and enforced by legal notice. Abroad, some five per cent of records were eventually kept by National Archives.

One should also consider, during the committee debate on this bill, whether ministers should continue to have power to decide which public documents should remain secret after 30 years.

Mr Bartolo said government departments should have a uniform policy of what material should be retained and what not.

While the opposition agreed with this government on the principle of this bill, he had some differences on the proposed structure, which would create a body which would be separate from a government department. One should reflect whether similar structures set up recently had been truly effective. Importantly, one should ensure that accountability remained in place and costs did not rise unduly.

There was no doubt, Mr Bartolo said, that training of archivists was necessary, after having been ignored for years. Such training in archives and records management should be extended to a number of employees in government departments and those who kept records in NGOs.

He welcomed the minister's assurance that the Gozo section of the National Archives would be retained.

Mr Bartolo said that in committee stage one should discuss the definition of "records" which, in the bill, was too restrictive and did not cover audio-visual material. Book publishers were currently obliged to deposit a copy of their book at the archives, but no such obligation existed if that same work was on audio tape. He complained that public and private broadcasting stations were often not archiving their audio-visual records. Unfortunately tapes were being reused after a certain time, and thus lost for ever.

Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono warmly welcomed the bill. She said the Gozo archives, set up 15 years ago, had preceded the Malta section thanks to the work of the Gozo Ministry which had shown concern over the loss of documents. In this context she wished to thank archivist Fr Joe Bezzina, who was performing sterling work.

Mrs Debono said that from the outset there was a problem of unregistered transfer of documents from Gozo to Malta. This problem was solved by legal notice in 1991 and all documents drawn in Gozo have since been archived there. She was pleased that an increasing number of people were using the Gozo archives.

Mrs Debono stressed that the Gozo section of the National Archives would not be closing down.

She suggested that the bill should include a direct reference to the Gozo archives and that those archives were given a juridical form. There should also be an Assistant National Archivist for Gozo in the same way as there were such assistants in various regions of the EU.