INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
The year 2020 had to be the one when archivists would have met in Abu Dhabi to celebrate the profession at the Congress. The disruption that the pandemic brought over resulted in the abandoning of international travel. This had a big impact on the way we conduct our international relations. However, the profession was quite resilient and managed to adjust its way of doing things. Online meetings managed to keep the main projects and interactions going. To some extent, some events we would have skipped due to limitations on travel budgets were included in this year’s commitments facilitated through virtual technology. What follows is a succing account of our salient international participation. February 24, 2020 The book ‘Maltese Archives… my choice’ by Dr Charles J. Farrugia was presented and discussed at the Historical Archives of the European Union (EUI) in Florence. This was during the last week before Italy started closing a number of regions. The book was published on the occasion of Farrugia’s thirtieth anniversary working in the Maltese archives sector. The event held at Villa Salviati was introduced by Dr Dieter Schlenker, Director of the EUI. It was also addressed by Dr Caterina Del Vivo, President of the National Association of Italian Archivists (Toscana). Dr Farrugia was introduced to the audience by Prof. Anna Maria Tammaro from the University of Parma. Dr Farrugia spoke about the value of archives not only for the local history but in their Mediterranean, European and international contexts. This view inspired the other two interventions – one by Prof. Giancarlo Casale from the European University Institute who dealt with the Mediterranean dimension, followed by an Italian perspective by Carla Zarilli, former Director of the Florence State Archives. This event was also combined with a visit by Dr Farrugia in his capacity as President of EURBICA to the Historical Archives of the EU, at Villa Salviati, Florence. He was shown the facilities including the underground storages, the digitisation process and also the ongoing research.
Annual Report 2020
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10 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
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