A collaboration agreement between the National Archives of Malta and the Public Memory Archive (University of Malta) has been signed today at the Head Office of the National Archives in Rabat.

In virtue of this agreement, signed by Prof John Chircop, founder and director of the Public Memory Archive and Mr Charles Farrugia, the National Archivist, the two entities will co-operate and collaborate in the development of research in public memory as well as the archiving, preservation and dissemination of the results.

Under the directorship and curatorship of Professor Chircop, the Public Memory Archive (including the Oral History Centre), will continue to manage fieldwork research projects that form part of the research strategy adopted since 2008. The National Archives of Malta will assist in the technical side of preservation, digitisation and cataloguing. Moreover, these two entities agreed to develop and conduct new joint fieldwork projects in the public memory domain.

Professor Chircop explained that the Public Memory Archive (University of Malta) conducts and promotes research in the relationship between memory and history.  Areas of research include the study of remembrance and representation, the uses of collective memories in the construction of the past, in myth making and official commemoration.  “The overarching theme is the crossover between subjective, shared or popular memory and public history,” stated Prof Chircop.

“The National Archives will assist in the design of a general archival policy for the whole public memory collection already in existence and its projected extension as well as a plan for the preservation for the whole Public Memory archive collections, as existing at present and in the future,” concluded Mr Charles Farrugia, the National Archivist.