MALTA
PARTICIPATES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ARCHIVES
PORTAL
The Archivio
Storico Multimediale del Mediterraneo was
launched at the Castello Maniace in Siracusa on
31 July 2009, during a ceremony presided over by
the Hon. Dott Nicola Bono, President of the
Province of Siracusa.
During the event,
National Archivist Charles J. Farrugia was one
of the guest speakers. He delivered a paper
entitled ‘Celebrating Voyages of Discovery’,
focusing on the new methods of virtual voyages
which researchers can now experience through the
use of archival portals.
The project of
the Mediterranean Archives Portal has been in
development for the last six years. It is
coordinated by the Archivio di Stato of
Catania, and in fact it was its Director, Dott.
Aldo Sparti, who explained the technical
features of the site which can be accessed at
www.archividelmediterraneo.org
It already brings
together 350,000 high resolution images and
62,000 indexes from Italian archives. The site
has innovative features and specialist tool box
to help patrons in their research. The portal
is very strong when it comes to
interoperability, visual commodity through the
lens function, and conversion of currencies from
countries and different epochs of time.
The other
speeches, by Dott Bono and by the Director of
the Spanish Archives D. Saveriano Hernandez
Vicente, dwelt on the need to expand this
project to embrace all Mediterranean countries.
Both Malta and
Spain promised to support this drive and to
build bridges of collaboration with the other
countries.
