Church archives digitised

The archives of the Archbishop and from various old parishes in Malta have been digitised and uploaded on a website for public use. The website, archives.maltadiocese.org, was inaugurated by Archbishop Paul Cremona this morning. It includes documents from 1531 to date. The archival collection of the Mdina Cathedral had already been microfilmed by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in an exercise which was embarked upon in 1973 and concluded in 1989. The microfilming project also included books, music manuscripts and archiving materials from other ecclesiastical institutions and private collections in Malta and Gozo. The Archdiocese of Malta, in collaboration with Exigy, has now transferred all of its microfilms into digital media. The microfilm scanning started in January and was concluded in October. The transfer of other documents to digital media is ongoing. The exercise will also see the digitising of manuscripts at the Mater Dei and Sancte Laurenti archives. A bid for EU funds was unsuccessful. Registration to the site is free but 50c per page is charged for manuscripts in high resolution.