Digital Initiatives

Collaborative projects are underway that seek to maximize the strength of Boston College’s Catholic collections as well as its unique digital capabilities in order to provide the wider scholarly community with open access to unparalleled online services. If you wish to learn more about collaborating on either of these projects, please email librariescatholicresearch@bc.edu.

Catholic Almanacs Project

Currently in the pilot stage, the Catholic Almanacs Project is a digital project that involves extracting data from the nineteenth-century Catholic Almanacs and structuring it for making maps, data visualization, and other forms of data manipulation. With guidance from the Digital Scholarship Group, BC students have been doing much of the work, using XML encoding to convert the almanac’s information on institutions, priests, and women religious into data points (learn more).

Interactive Catholic Artifacts Collection

This collection of 3D models broadens access to some of the more unique three-dimensional objects housed in the Catholic Religious Archives and other similar collections at Boston College. The artifacts, created with photogrammetry, structured light, and infrared modes, allow close and interactive examination for scholarship, teaching, and general curiosity.

Catholic Historical Research Anthology

Launched and managed by BC Libraries’ Digital Production Department, the Catholic Historical Research Anthology, is an open-access, curated, and growing compilation of newspapers, journals, and books to facilitate the study and understanding of the Catholic Church. While titles complement the archival collections at the Catholic Religious Archives, the database also includes the histories of the institutions, people, and religious congregations identified in the almanac project. Collaborative partners include archdiocesan archives and other rights holders to publications.