Visit to the National Library, Valletta

The National Library of Malta’s mission is to safeguard the heritage conserved within its collection by upgrading the Library's regulations, improving the services offered especially in the digital field, as well as continuing to preserve the existing collection while improving its access to its users.

Like any other institution having to deal with the administration and the technical aspects of its workflow, the library has to follow certain measures that will result in an efficient and law-abiding procedure. These have to include a planning stage to identify current and future needs, identify budget funds to cover purchase of proposed project (in this case a digital catalogue database for online resources), and the human resources needed together with the required workflow and appropriate research. Moreover, procurement and tender to allow purchase of system needs to be established with clear and accurate specifications of what and how the project's functions will be before the contract will be established and awarded after evaluating financial bids. This has got to be drafted and adhered to public procurement regulations following specific formats and templates as provided by the department of contracts available from www.contracts.gov.mt

In turn, the infrastructural setup available needs to be upgraded or improved accordingly in order to meet the specifications of the technical aspects of the software. Standards of this should improve quality and performance of such a system especially the handling of metadata, import, export as well as output while keeping consistent in reporting and auditing to justify the projects’ initial aim and financial costs. If managed accordingly, it will be beneficial for the users and the institution alike. 

Here are some photos during our visit: