Abstract

The USMARC AMC was used to create a computerized access system for the Vatican archives in a collaborative effort between Vatican personnel and American scholars and archivists. The two initial goals of the Vatican Archives Project were to create and enter series level descriptions for all holdings in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano (ASV) and to research, compile, and enter agency histories for all central offices of the Catholic Church. The author discusses the challenge posed by the application of the MARC AMC format to ASV records, especially that posed by the seeming limitations of fields Finding Aids Note (555), Linking Entry Complexity Note (580), and Genre/Form Heading (655). The need to include interpretive analyses in addition to conventional objective description is also discussed, as well as concerns and comments on the international exchange of archival data.

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