Reforming the National Archives

One cannot but agree with all the points expressed in The Times editorial "The National Archives' invaluable holdings" (April 6).

During the last years the National Archives managed to make a name for themselves. This was only possible through the dedication of a small group of people who love their job, notwithstanding that they are underpaid and poorly recognised.

Talk of reform in the archives sector has been in the air for the last eight years. Successive reports under different administrations and ministers have been commissioned. All reached the same conclusions. But no report was ever implemented. The end result is the current set-up; a group of five officers and three general hands trying to cope with 12 kilometres of records, the provision of reference services in two different premises on a six-day basis and the overseeing of records management throughout the public service. This is not to mention the backlog of cataloguing of material already transferred to the archives (circa 600 boxes) and basements full of records in almost all government departments.

During the last three years the Friends' committee offered its support to the Minister of Education. We worked for long hours and contributed extensively in the formulation of a new Archives Act. Unfortunately, this legislation has not reached parliament yet. We believe it is high time that the government moves forward on specific legislation such as the Archives Act. It is legislation that should not create much controversy in parliament but is of an urgent necessity for the country. Malta will be joining the EU on May 1 with a National Archives which is merely a section in a department. The Department of Libraries and Archives did not even think it is important to give this section a Quality Service Charter, notwithstanding that its staff give excellent quality service.

The Times editorial praised the National Memory Project. Again, this project was planned by the head of the National Archives and his staff and all finances were budgeted from our organisation. While we celebrate this achievement, we cannot but condemn the lack of initiative from the authorities. To add insult to injury, one of the National Archives staff was transferred to another department just the day after the opening of the National Memory Project. This is a clear case in which public service procedures are not delivering the desired results. Identifying and training a person fit for an archives reading room is not an easy task. Replacing such a person by someone who has no aptitude for the job will be even worse than understaffing.

We make a strong appeal to the Minister of Education to intervene in this case and to all other ministers and the shadow minister of education to give their support for the new legislation to reach parliament.