About the Network of Archives and Libraries of the Catholic Church (NALCC)

Project Background

The project was initiated in 2008 by the then Keeper of the Catholic Archives together with the Archivist at the Royal English College, Valladolid.  Their mission was twofold; they wished to have a single access point for the catalogues of the Catholic Church whilst providing affordable industry standard software, where costs had been prohibitive and beyond most small Catholic Repositories and Institutions.

The Projects Inception

In 2008, the first five repositories got together and decided to use the CALM system from the software provider Axiell, and purchased a network licence.  This allowed them to standardise databases and operate a portal to present their material to the world through CALMView.

The Project Today

Today the project helps to preserve the unique collections and makes them accessible to an academic audience who would not have known of their existence had it not been established.  The collections involved are being catalogued using a comprehensive system that supports international archival cataloguing standards. 

The Project Group now consists of:

• The Bishops’ Conference, England and Wales
•  Diocese of Westminster Archives
• Jesuits in Britain Archives
•  Scottish Catholic Archives
  • Scottish Catholic Archives, Historical Archives, University of Aberdeen
  • The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland
• Archdiocese of Glasgow
• Ushaw College Archive Collections, Durham University
• Royal Scots College, Salamanca, Spain
• Pontifical Scots College, Rome Italy
• Venerable English College, Rome Italy
• Society of the Sacred Heart, Provincial Archives Office, Ireland and Scotland
• Society of the Sacred Heart, Provincial Archives Office, England and Wales

Are you a Catholic Archive or Library and interested in joining Catholic Heritage?  Please contact us for further information.

The first five repositories were –

• Scottish Catholic Archives
• Royal English College, Valladolid
• Royal Scots College, Salamanca
• Bishops’ Conference, England and Wales
• Jesuits in Britain Archives

The Project achieved its objectives, a single access point to an online collection of archival databases, which is of value to students and researchers across the world.  While the obvious benefit will be to the Catholic History and Religious community, other academic areas including social history, economic history and cultural studies will also benefit considerably from the use of these databases.

This project could not have got started without the generous and valued support of the Rectors of the Royal English and Royal Scots Colleges in Valladolid and Salamanca.