Search for new site for National Archives ongoing since 2021

A decision to cancel a deed of transfer of land at Ta’ Qali for a new, centralised for Malta’s National Archives, was taken over “environmental and operational considerations for the Ta’ Qali National Park” back in December 2021, the minister for the arts said.

Replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Julie Zahra, minister for the arts Owen Bonnici said the eleventh-hour change of plans for the National Archives of Malta still meant the government was evaluating various sites for the relocation of the important institution.

“The aim is to identify a site that not only satisfies the technical requirements for such a repository for our priceless heritage, but also to improve public access as well as cultivate greater awareness of our National Archives.

“Internal talks are ongoing,” Bonnici added. “It is crucial that we achieve this goal with future-proof decisions.”

Zahra, speaking to MaltaToday, said the minister’s answer lacked detail on the government’s efforts to secure a physical site for a brand-new archival institution.

“I hope that this site is found. It is government’s obligation, and it cannot be some electoral pledge that is left to gather dust. It is indeed our obligation that we can preserve part of our county’s history and identity, and the Nationalist Party is committed that this pledge is delivered.”

The National Archives was accorded land at Ta’ Qali in a 2019 deed in an joint effort from three ministers, but since then the planned project was overtaken by the Ta’ Qali concert venue built in place of an old concrete factory.

Now the government has been forced to seek new storage space that can guarantee 5,000 linear metres of shelving for the National Archives’ holdings, which are currently held at the Santu Spirtu in Rabat, a premises that is not suitable for the storage of such precious archives, and six other buildings.

It is a tall order for the prospective service provider, who will have to also provide the National Archives with an online portal that provides real-time information on the status of the archived records, apart from the facility of requesting records through the same.

The prospective new National Archives building would have centralised all services in a state-of-the-art and purposely built repository, housing also the National Audio-Visual Institute (NAVI) for Malta’s audio-visual heritage.

“All these dreams faded away when the Ta’ Qali site was unceremoniously ‘taken over’,” chief archivist Charles J. Farrugia noted in an annual report for the National Archives, which came with a severe warning.

“The future of the new national archive building depends on the identification by government of a new site for the project. Until then, we will continue investing in our network of current buildings that with the notarial registers’ archive will comprise seven repositories. We may keep adding to the repositories but in the long run the system risks collapsing.”

The current fragmentation of the archives into buildings that do not even offer the basic minimum climatic conditions is preventing the Archives from having effective physical and intellectual control on its archival deposits, apart from being unable to develop IT services for patrons.

“Fragmented space is not only costly but risky and will hamper the process of adequate cataloguing and opening to the public,” Farrugia said.

While the Maltese national archives are supported by public departments applying retention policies on their documents, the scale of the public administration system is such that every new year brings with it the need for 1 kilometre of additional storage space.