The term public-private-partnership could not fit better than the project Friends of the National Archives (FotNA), the Vodafone Foundation and the National Archives have embarked upon in order to further improve public access to national archives.

In fact, the Vodafone Foundation yesterday presented FotNA with the first payment for a sponsorship aimed at funding a preservation and digitisation programme of the archives. The historic documents will be photographed as well as stored on a microfilm and then transferred to digital media. Once a digital copy of the document has been made the possibilities are endless.

The details of the project were given yesterday during a press conference, held at the National Archives at the Santo Spirito church in Rabat. The press conference was addressed by Vodafone Foundation chairperson Mrs Gemma Mifsud Bonnici, FotNA president Max Farrugia and the National Archives head Charles Farrugia.

Documents which have been digitalised can be stored on a computer and eventually even published on the internet, providing much wider access. The microfilm process is kept because of its endurance – guaranteed for 500 years. Mrs Mifsud Bonnici declined to comment on the sum being donated, saying it was the foundation’s policy not to disclose such information.

However, Mr Max Farrugia commented that the sum was substantial.

The whole process involves cataloguing and numbering by the National Archives’ employees, Mr Charles Farrugia explained, along with substantial input from professional volunteers from the FotNA. The latter filing processes – microfilming and digitisation – will be carried out mostly by FotNA volunteers, partly with equipment donated by the foundation.

In total, the National Archives have some 12km of records – a figure which is expected to increase considerably when official documents from the last 30 years will also be handed to the archives. At the moment, these documents are scattered in various government departments.

A law, to be published shortly, will stipulate that documents are sent to the National Archives, Mr Farrugia added.

The FotNA plans to present the first tangible results of this partnership to the public during an event entitled Archive Awareness Week 2005, to be held in October.