The academic journal Verbum et Ecclesia recently published an article regarding religious archives in South Africa.

The article, entitled ‘Collection stewardship constrained by resources: The management of religious archives in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal region’, discusses the types of records held in South African religious archives and examines related issues such as preservation, archival storage, disaster prevention, environmental conditions, digitisation and security.

Interestingly, the author of the study, Francis Garaba, recommended the establishment of a religious archives group in order for the “voice of ecclesiastical archives to resonate across South Africa” and to foster “greater coordination and networking amongst the archival repositories”.

It can be read (free of charge) here: Verbum et Ecclesia.

 

The Catholic Historical Society of Ireland and the Irish Jesuit Province are hosting a two-day conference in Belvedere College, Dublin 1, on 19-20 September, to mark the bi-centenary of the Restoration of the Jesuits in Ireland (1814). Themes treated will include the Jesuits and: political violence; the Irish language; the Easter Rising; World War I; the labour movement; the sciences; art and architecture.

• Damien Burke of the Irish Jesuit Archives – Irish Jesuit chaplains in the First World War
• Vera Orschel of the Rome Archival Project – “Uniting the dispersed members”: Jesuit Communications and the Irish annual letters (1604-1675).