Benefitting from a €4.8 million investment partially-funded through the ERDF Programme PBS, which falls within the Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government, has embarked on a digitisation project ‘Enhancing the Cultural Tourism Experience through Digitisation’, which should reach completion by 2021. 

This is the second part of a project which PBS embarked on in 2014, under Priority Axis 5 Protecting our environment, investing in natural and cultural assets. 

Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government Owen Bonnici explained the importance that this project carries, as it extends Malta’s media legacy into the future. 

“Thanks to this project, we are fully tapping into the informative and educational role which this source of information brings with it, ensuring that precious footage which documents our recent history is preserved and shared with the members of our community, through the interactive aspect of this project. This is an important element of our national heritage, and our intention is to make this available to everyone,” he said.

He concluded by saying that the ministry’s strategy is to make all of this accessible in an experience which will link the past together with the present, with a foresight of the future.

With a visual record dating back to 1960, this digitisation project is set to categorise the footage legacy in mainly four different categories: culture, events, personalities in history, and locations. 

Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue Aaron Farrugia said that the European Regional Development Fund is financing a number of historical and cultural heritage projects which are giving a future to our country’s past, for current and future generations. 

Access to archived material will be available to the public through totem poles and plaques distributed all over the island

“I held lengthy discussions with Dr Bonnici in the past weeks on the cultural projects which need to be invested in. I also discussed with Louis Grech, who was the mind behind the project, but is also involved in the EU budget negotiations. Next year we will close the chapter of EU funds 2014-2020, and have started the negotiations for the upcoming budget 2021-2027, with European cultural heritage and European identity at the top of the agenda,” he said.

He added that during the meeting, which took place in Paris following the Notre-Dame tragedy, EU ministers agreed on the need for more significant investments in culture in order to preserve European cultural heritage, as well as a team of experts to guide member states on the best way to go about this. 

“Future generations would not forgive us if we do not preserve such heritage – our assets would be lost forever if we do not invest in them.”

For this reason, a new unit which specialises in direct funds is also under way in order to assist beneficiaries in making full use of this European tool.  

The execution of the project is divided into a number of phases. Phase one was finalised with a complete revamp of the Basement of the Creativity HUB. The project included the setting up of eight editing suites, the creation of an open area for indexing and the setting up of a server room for storage and robotics. Editors, directors and metadata inputters are currently engaged with PBS to focus solely on the digitisation project.

Out of the 24,200 hours, an estimated 19,800 hours of material will be digitised in-house, as formats such as 16mm film, U-matic reels and High Bands are currently being digitised overseas. The digitisation process is to be followed by indexing and metadata.

Access to archived material will be available to the public through totem poles and plaques distributed all over the island, giving users free access to video clips through the scanning of QR codes. 

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