Vatican Archives Project (1989-1998)

(Funded by the Getty Grant Program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellow Foundation, the Homeland Foundation, the American Friends of the Vatican Library, and the UM Office for the Vice-President for Research)

The Vatican Archives Project tested the applicability of modern archival methods to older materials created in another culture. Over the course of the project, collective level descriptive practices were applied to records in the Vatican Archives and a MAchine Readable Cataloging database was created for all fonds. Data collected from the project is available in the Research Libraries Group - Research Libraries Information Network union catalog and in the book, Vatican Archives.

Publications:

F. X. Blouin, L. A. Coombs, E. Yakel, C. Carlen, and K. Gill (eds.), Vatican Archives: An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documentation of the Holy See, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Winner of the Society of American Archivists, C.W.F. Coker Award for Innovative Development in Archival Description, 1999 and selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book in 1998.

E. Yakel, "Pushing MARC AMC to its Limits: The Vatican Archives Project", American Archivist 55/1 (Winter) 1992.

E. Yakel, "The Vatican Archives Project: Automating Access to the Holdings of the Vatican Archives," Catholic Archives 14, 1994.

Investigators: Francis X. Blouin (PI), Elizabeth Yakel, Leonard Coombs, Claudia Carlen, Thomas Powers

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