week of June; • Participation by the National Archivist in “The Commonwealth and its People: Diasporas, Identities, Memories” Conference held at the Valletta Campus of the University of Malta; • Participation of our Chief Conservator Mr Mario V Gauci in the Seventh Meeting of European Heads of Conservation held in the National Archives of Latvia in Riga between the 25th and 26th June of the current year. Mr Gauci gave a presentation of the on-going project regarding the preservation of the Consolato del Mare volumes and their preservation project, deposited at the Banca Giuratale in Mdina; • Participation of the Assistant National Archivist Dr Joseph Bezzina in the Fifth Meeting of the Country Managers of APeX at the National Archives of Latvia. This was the last scheduled meeting for APeX and each country represented in this Meeting presented its input. Malta’s input was the uploading of thousands of images into this portal and more are to follow; • Dr Bezzina also represented the National Archivist at the Thirty-first Conference of the European Board of National Archivists (EBNA) and the Eighteenth Meeting of the European Archives Group (EAG) held at the National Library of Riga in Latvia; • Participation of Mr Etienne Ferrito in the International APeX Conference “Collaboration and networking for a digital archival future - Sustainable perspectives through the Archives Portal Europe,” held in Budapest between the 7th and 9th September; • Dr Bezzina attended the regular EU meetings of the EAG and EBNA in Luxembourg during the month of October; • Mr Charles J Farrugia was invited to deliver a keynote speech entitled “Popular Cartography and photographic archives: building blocks in cultural tourism” at the International Geographic Seminar ‘Dimitrie Cantemir’ organised by the Alexander Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi in Romania last October; • The National Archivist addressed the EU Cultural Attachées on the invitation of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) and the Maltese Embassy in Washington at the EU representation for Washington DC Headquarters in the United States of America between the 8th and 11th December, focusing on the successful collaboration between the two entities – the National Archives of Malta and the HMML. The theme discussed was “Archives: Common Heritage Transcending Boundaries.” During this visit, Mr Farrugia familiarised himself with the Maltese collection at the Rare Books section of the Catholic University of America and attended the signing of agreement between this University and the HMML; • The foreign meetings for this year in question ended on 15th December when discussions were held between Mr Charles J Farrugia and the Committee of the Maltese Canadian Club of London, Canada. During this visit in Toronto, discussions were held on how the Maltese National Archives can support the work done by the club through the sharing of emigration data and the reciprocal input these migrants can give to the National Memory Project. Collaboration • The initiation of collaboration with the United Arab Emirates during a visit by Dr Bassam Deghastani, Head of Conservation of the Juma Al Majid Center in Dubai to the National Archives in August 2015; • New relations were also established with the Association of Archivists of São Paolo (ARQ-SP) and the Grupo de Pesquisa Acervos Fotogràficos of Brazil. Discussions were held on how the Focus Group on the Richard Ellis Archive between the Maltese National Archives and the Centre for Image Research and Dissemination of Girona can collaborate in the work the São Paolo Group is doing in Latin America; • A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in December 2015 between the National Archives and The People of Malta facebook site managed by Mr Stephen Buhagiar and Mr Roderick Vella. The aim is to preserve all the documentation and photography gathered of daily depictions of customs, traditions and daily life around Malta and Gozo. This will also be part of the oral archives audio visual initiatives; • Discussions were held between the Maltese National Archivist and the National Archivist of the US, Dr David Ferriero on the Maltese Archives sector.
30