Research Seed Fund 2022-2023

The project aims to reconstruct the forgotten 20th-century history of the libraries and archives sector protagonists of the Maltese Archipelago. The project focuses on the network of people who worked to save, recover, manage, reorganise and make accessible the impressive amount of documentary heritage of the country in state, ecclesiastical, public, and private archives and libraries. Through extensive archival research and interviews to the still-alive protagonists of the Maltese documentary scenario, it aims to explore how archives and libraries were perceived and in turn shaped by people who engaged and dedicated their lives to this mission. First, this investigation will reconstruct the early embryonic development of the profession in Malta and systematically explore activities, regulations, setbacks and continuities in the documentary history of the country. Secondly, information about selection, displacement, and restructuring amongst the different seats and institutions has prevented us from fully reconstructing the documentary custodial history of the island in the last 200 years. This project also intends to address this lacuna and question the role archives and libraries played on personal, collective and the moulding of national memories.

Work in progress here: http://www.memorja.com/SliderItems.aspx?type=1

Project leaders: Dr Charles Farrugia; Dr Valeria Vanesio

Publications:

Farrugia, C. (2022).  Archival Sciences: Challenges for university level education. In C. J. Farrugia (Ed.), The Information Professions in Malta: Three Decades of Academic Commitment (pp. 73-84). Malta: Salesian Press.

Vanesio, V. (2022). Teaching Archival and Institutional History in Malta. The case of the Order of St John. In C. J. Farrugia (Ed.), The Information Professions in Malta: Three Decades of Academic Commitment (pp. 73-84). Malta: Salesian Press.

Farrugia, C., Vanesio, V. (2023). Pioneers in Maltese Archives and Libraries. People, contexts and institutions in 20th-century Malta. Archives and Records (forthcoming)