LBSC670 Term Paper: The Vatican Archives Project – Section III
As mentioned earlier, one of the initial goals of the Vatican Archives Project
was to make the Archives more accessible to international scholars. When work
began in the late 1980’s, previously created reference sources and archival guides
for the Vatican were not comprehensive enough to give researchers a sufficient
understanding of the collection’s organization. As Blouin wrote in his 1992 article, A
Case for Bridging the Gap: The Significance of the Vatican Archives Project, scholars
attempting to access the archival holdings “had to rely upon many guides and
indices, each with a different emphasis, covering time period, geographical focus or
agency within the larger Vatican structure”.1 A majority of the reference guides that
existed at that time had been created to serve the internal needs of the Vatican and
did not take universal access into consideration. The University of Michigan team
recognized that a more comprehensive index was necessary and strove to establish
a system of organization that would “share [a] sense of the overall scope and
structure of the archives with scholars and to direct them to the more detailed
indices.”2 For their project, they concluded that the USMARC AMC format would
satisfy their requirements, confident that this standard would be flexible enough to
fit the various data elements of many ASV records, yet fixed enough to allow
computer processing.3 Most importantly, this system would enhance access through
automation and collaboration on an international scale.
In compliance with the USMARC AMC guidelines, the archivists from
Michigan designed a standard record template that included the data elements
applicable to all entries, including date, organization, scope, and finding aids.4
Additionally, the team created two distinct types of records. The first type is a listing
of the agencies or departments of the Vatican, and the second type is a description of
each record those agencies stored within the Archives. Agency entries were created
for over 500 Vatican departments that existed for any period of time within the
previous 1,000 years and contained a brief summary of each department’s history
and function, as well as links to preceding and subsequent agencies. This structure
of agency and records entries enabled “representations of one-to-many as well as
many-to-many relationships, which is not possible in a static, linear list.”5 The
agency histories offered researchers a basic understanding of the department’s
work and also established a link between agencies and extant records. The Michigan
1
Blouin, Francis X. "A Case for Bridging the Gap: The Significance of the Vatican Archives
Project for International Archival Information Exchange." The American Archivist. Vol. 55
(1992): 183.
2 Blouin (1992), 184.
3 Yakel, Elizabeth. "Pushing Marc Amc to Its Limits: the Vatican Archives Project." The
American Archivist. 55.1 (1992): 194.
4 Yakel, 195.
5 Blouin, Jr F. X, Elizabeth Yakel, and Leonard A. Coombs. "Vatican Archives: an Inventory
and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See -- a Ten-Year Retrospective."The
American Archivist. 71.2 (2008): 421.
team listed the record groups by agency name, allowing for scholars to easily realize
the scope and quantity of surviving records for each particular department, or
conversely, the lack of surviving records. 6
Perhaps the greatest challenge the team from Michigan faced was the
realization that the Vatican Archives contained only a small fraction of the papacy’s
archival holdings; additional documents were spread across the continent. Thus, a
secondary goal of the Michigan Project at its onset was to describe all archival
materials produced by the Holy See, not only those present in the ASV, but those
kept at other locations in- and outside of the Vatican as well. Fortunately, the
USMARC AMC format easily allowed for the database to include those archival series
that were kept in repositories separate from the Vatican using the location field
(#851) to identify their physical location while maintaining the Vatican as the
agency of origin. Certain historical events affected the contents of the ASV and
littered its collection across Western Europe. The unification of Italy in 1870, for
instance, resulted in numerous records being transferred from the Vatican to the
Archivio di Stato di Roma. Similarly, the Napoleonic Wars led to several document
series being relocated to The French Archives Nationales and the Bibliothque
Nationale in Paris. The Vatican Archives Project team was able to enter information
for these, and similar collections, in USMARC AMC format, into the database and
successfully link the collections of multiple archives.
The Vatican Archives Project was the first attempt by professionals to apply
USMARC AMC to a major European archive and demonstrated the advantages of a
uniform format for exchanging information on a large scale, considering the number
of patrons who sought to utilize the collection. The Vatican Archives served as an
ideal collection to attempt to organize according to this standard due to the fact that
all articles within it were created by an institution with a generally stable and
consistent government structure.7 The Michigan team believed that there was an
incredible advantage to the machine-readable format of their records because, with
its flexibility, it facilitated the exchange of information on an international scale. 8
Evaluating how the team expanded on certain fields within records in order to
facilitate scholarly research exemplifies of the format’s adaptability. The “Scope and
Content” area (Field #520), for instance, not only describes the item according to
traditional archival categories, but “also infuses [the] descriptions with perspectives
drawn from the scholarly use of the series”.9 Similarly, the Michigan team created
extensive and detailed finding aids for each series. They “noted other guides that
described the series, identified both current and retired indici, and described how
they could best be used.”10 Enhancing the records in this way encouraged
researchers to make connections between ecclesiastical information and other
Blouin (1992), 184.
Blouin (1992), 187.
8 Blouin (1992), 188.
9 Blouin (1992), 189.
10 Blouin (2008), 424.
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disciplines (art history, politics, etc.) and also directed the researcher to related
works for additional information.
Constructing a digital access system differed significantly from creating a
traditional printed guide because information technology allowed for additional
accessibility options. The online database built by the University of Michigan team
was designed so that it would facilitate incremental updates, permit researchers to
retrieve information more precisely, and create interoperability across institutions;
all of which was impossible in linear, printed guides.11 The MARC format was, in the
late 1980’s, also used by the online public access catalog (OPAC) in the Vatican
Library, as well as by the Research Libraries Group Research Library Information
Network (RLIN). The Michigan archivists intended to upload their MARC records
into the Vatican online catalog, believing their work would serve as a baseline for a
dynamic database that could be updated and edited as needed by ASV staff.
Additionally, they planned to add their records to the RLIN database, where they
could serve to unify the diverse holdings of the ASV as well as link the ASV collection
to others at institutions throughout Europe.
Unfortunately, the Michigan team’s vision for creating a dynamic access
system that encouraged international scholarly research has not yet been fully
realized. Due largely to administrative changes and political shifts within the ASV,
the results of the archivists efforts were never added to the Vatican Library’s OPAC,
and although the records were included in the RLIN database, when RLIN merged
into the OCLC WorldCat, the links between agency histories and records
descriptions became invalid as they were designed specifically for the RLIN
platform.12 In recent years, the only descriptive activity to occur that could be
compared to the efforts of the Michigan Project is the ASV Web. This site, a
subsection of the general website of the Holy See, is the most frequently used webbased access system for the Archives and provides a list of specific fonds and series
within the archives, detailing a title, location, list of available finding aids, and
identifying an agency of origin. This technique reflects a traditional approach to
understanding and organizing the Vatican’s collection. The ASV records do not
elaborate on any cited finding aids, in terms of their coverage, perspective, or
limitations – which was a key advantage of the Michigan Project’s approach.13 Both
the omission of explanatory contextual information in the agency histories and the
scope-and-content notes, as well as the lack of any analytical work on the finding
aids significantly diminish the value of the ASV website’s system. The AVS site treats
the records in a traditional, linear fashion, with its “narrow emphasis on a limited
number of diplomatic-based categories of description with little explanation for the
user.”14 Overall, the current web presence of the ASV indicates that little progress
Blouin (2008), 414.
Blouin (2008), 432.
13 Blouin (2008), 419.
14 Blouin (2008), 425.
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has been made in utilizing the potential of information technology in explicating the
complexities of these archives.15
In regards to the Michigan team’s goal of creating a database that recognizes
the even though some documents are located outside of Vatican City, they are still
essentially part of the Vatican Archives, the ASV website is found wanting as it does
not list significant series of papal documentation, nor does it reference any other
repositories. There are still important archival materials stored in archives
independent of the ASV; many congregations, for instance, maintain their own
collections and there is a significant amount of material housed in the archives of
Trinity College of Dublin. Due to the fact that the ASV focuses solely on its own
collections, it fails to connect itself to the broader collection of documents that relate
to the Holy See. The Michigan team believed that although the entire body of
documents would most likely never be contained in one location, a broad archival
record system, such as the one they conceived, would allow for a virtual unification
of all relevant archival holdings.
The work of the archivists from the University of Michigan produced a
comprehensive database of the Vatican holdings at the time of its completion,
however, it now faces sustainability issues. Somewhat ironically, The Vatican
Archives: An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See is, at
present, the lasting legacy of the project due to the stagnation of the online database.
As noted in its introduction, the Inventory and Guide is essentially a printout of the
database as it existed in 1996.16 However, it must be understood that the database
still has the potential for improvement, and thus, relevance to scholars. The Vatican
Archives Project created a fundamental structure that has proven to be both
adaptable and correctable and indeed, the existing database records have the
capacity to be revised, reconfigured, enhanced, and transferred to newer systems.
The database was constructed to allow for gradual information integration and
exchange and with the hopes of eliminating the need for rekeying of the records
contained within.
Perhaps surprisingly, since the release of the Michigan Project data on RLIN
in 1992 and the publication of the printed guide in 1998, new technology has not
been used to further facilitate access to the Archives. The leaders of the Michigan
team assert that the ASV could greatly improve its current website by using
scanning technology to produce digital representations of indici which could be
linked to the fonds listing. It would be equally beneficial to scholars if the ASV were
to create and maintain a comprehensive bibliography of the works based on the
fonds of the ASV, which would allow more efficient scholarly access and searching.17
Blouin (2008), 413.
Blouin, Francis X. Vatican Archives: An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of
the Holy See. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
17 Blouin (2008), 429.
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Since the 1960’s, the Vatican Archives have issues bibliographies, structured by
fond, of works based on ASV holdings. By simply scanning these entries and linking
to descriptions of the appropriate fonds, the ASV web could give researchers an
interactive way to see the prior uses of particular fonds.
Similarly, Web 2.0 social networking technologies could be used to build a
collaborative community of researchers and archivists by allowing users to
annotate, comment on, and tag their findings. Scholarly commentary and tagging
would provide additional access methods as well as present further archival
information. Other new technologies that could be beneficial to this project are the
Encoded Archival Description because in enables the exchange of data about
archival finding aids, and applications such as Google Notebook and Zotero, which
assist scholars in online not taking and capturing citation information.18 New, more
modern, technological tools and techniques would even allow for adherence to the
ASV Web’s fond-based method while still enabling a better understanding of the
context. Overall, emerging technologies could provide access methods to
international scholars that the Michigan team would not have been able to imagine
when they began their work more then twenty years ago; however, because they
chose to structure their data according to such a distinctly flexible standard, it could
be quite easily transitioned into newer systems that would enhance access, search,
and discovery.
Ultimately, the Michigan Project and its subsequent publications should not
be considered the final word on, or a failed attempt to organize, the Vatican archival
holdings but rather the first step in a construction of a database that would serve as
a comprehensive guide to the entire body of Holy See archives. Any online access
system for Vatican archival holdings would need to be a sustainable descriptive
program in which information in standard data structures could be migrated to new
and more powerful platforms over time.19 In retrospect the Michigan Project broke
new ground in an effort to create and more user-centered access point for the vast
archival holdings of the Vatican and was proof positive for the benefits of a more
universal archival standard. Additionally, the Michigan Project served as a
conceptual precursor to numerous other archival guides including: the second
edition of the International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate
Bodies, Persons and Families (ISARR CPF, the Encoded Archival Context (EAC) and
the International Standard on Activities/Functions of Corporate Bodies (ISAF).20
Blouin (2008), 431.
Blouin (2008), 431.
20 Blouin (2008), 422-23.
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