National Library of Malta

The National Library of Malta was founded in the 1700s. It is located in Valletta, the capital city of Malta. In the southeast region of the island, Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe. It has many buildings dating back to the 1500s. Valletta has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The city’s nickname is Superbissima, or very proud in Italian. The National Library of Malta is a reference library, housed in a building constructed in the 1700s. The Thammasat University Library owns some books about Malta, notably Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World. The TU Library also owns books about Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, an important Italian painter who spent some time in Malta in the 1600s and created a number of great paintings there. Unfortunately, Caravaggio got into a number of fights with people in Malta, and eventually left the country.

The TU Library also owns a study of the Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, published by the United States Department of State. TU students from the Faculty of History who known about the Second World War are aware that the Malta Conference (1945) was a meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, to plan the final military campaign against the German army. The Combined Chiefs of Staff – the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff and the British Chiefs of Staff Committee- also participated. One of the results of this gathering was the agreement that the Soviet Union, under the rule of Joseph Stalin, should not invade central Europe.

Impressive architecture

The National Library of Malta building was designed by Stefano Ittar, a Polish-born architect who made his career in Italy. Stefano Ittar conceived of the large library as a sort of big palace in the classical style. Classical architecture such as Ittar created is usually influenced by the styles of ancient Greece and Rome, especially Vitruvius, the Roman authority on architecture. Construction was completed on the library a few years after Ittar had died. At the time, there was a legend that Ittar had killed himself because he had made mistakes in design that had caused structural problems in the library. Later generations have proven that there are no structural issues in the building, although during winter time it can be cold and windy, because the building has a large number of windows.

The National Library of Malta’s collections include an early printed books and maps. Among these are volumes from the personal collection of Sabba da Castiglione, an Italian Renaissance humanist and author who belonged to the Knights Hospitalier, a Catholic military order based in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on the island of Rhodes, in Malta and St. Petersburg. Sabba da Castiglione’s signed copy of a history of Rhodes, the largest of Greece’s Dodecanese islands, printed in the late 1400s is one of the library’s treasures. He studied law, philosophy and theology at the University of Pavia, Italy. Devoted to art, literature, and charity, he founded a free public school for poor children.

The National Library of Malta also owns illuminated manuscripts, or handwritten texts decorated with small illustrations. Some of these date back to the 1300s. Many were formerly in the collection of Ignazio Saverio Mifsud (1722-1773), who studied law and theology in Rome. As one historian explains, Mifsud was so interested in literature that when he was 21, he founded an Academy of Lively People (Accademia dei Fervidi) with his friends to discuss books and exchange their own writings.

He produced so many writings that his friends gave him the nickname of Prolific Intellectual (accademico fertile). Ignazio Saverio Mifsud was an obsessive collector of books and would often go to estate sales and auctions to acquire volumes that had been in private collections. He was particularly interested in books about law. Some of the rarest books about Malta owned by the National Library of Malta were once in the collection of Mifsud. The National Library of Malta’s copy of the earliest known book printed in Malta was formerly owned by Mifsud. The National Library of Malta also possesses some beautifully bound books, including some bindings originally made for King Louis XV of France.

Digitization plans

As the library website notes,

Since the National Library’s foundation, the need to preserve and conserve its collections has been acknowledged as a fundamental function. The National Library has undertaken an extensive digitisation programme in order to make substantial collections of its holdings accessible to researchers, scholars and the public in general. Thus, regardless of location, users may gain direct access and use a range of digitised materials relating to Malta and its history. The process of digitisation is quite a complex one in that it entails a number of different stages. Material is first selected mainly on the basis of the most requested items by the users. Before being sent to the Digitisation Studio for scanning, it is first checked by the Restoration and Conservation Lab of the National Library in case it requires repair or restoration. Once the material is scanned, there follows a lengthy editing process which includes cropping, enhancing and downsizing of images and extraction of PDF. The images are then indexed and uploaded on DigiVault, the portal created to house the National Library’s digital collection.

As of February 2016, over 60,000 pages were accessible online, with 700,000 pages scanned and in the process of digitization. Nevertheless, printed books remain the focus of the library’s collection, and an active Restoration and Conservation Lab ensures that these remain in good condition.

Among public events at the library were lectures in November 2018 about Malta’s historical architecture and archives. The library’s mission statement follows:

The mission of Malta Libraries is to ensure the collection and conservation of Malta’s documentary heritage for present and future generations, to maintain and develop the libraries regulated under the Malta Libraries Act, and to encourage reading for study, research, self-development and lifelong-learning information and leisure purposes. 

MALTA LIBRARIES ACT 2011

Malta Libraries – Functions

As established by the Malta Libraries Act, the functions and responsibilities of Malta Libraries are:

• to continue to acquire, assemble, conserve for posterity, and make accessible to the public, the  collection of the nation’s documentary heritage and published current output, regardless of form or  medium, to be found in the libraries;
• to manage, administer, and develop the libraries under its control, and to provide leadership to other  libraries in Malta in such areas  as management and conservation of library materials, and to promote  national cooperation schemes and the professional training of librarians and information professionals;
• to assist Local Councils which run a public library to ensure that the library maintains high standards;
• to enhance the quality of life of the public by providing library reference and lending services and  library material, in whatever form or medium, for education, self-development, lifelong learning and recreation purposes;
• to foster and strengthen reading habits and support literacy and other cultural activities and  programmes for all age groups;
• to accept and acquire private records of significance by gift, purchase, bequest or deposit;
• explore innovative services, including information, communication and technology services, that can  benefit patrons in accessing and using information;
• serve as the role mode  library system for other libraries in Malta…

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)