In the past two decades, under the auspices of the UCEI, cataloguing projects pioneered the creation of important records on the history of Italian Jewry.

Projects lead by the Centro Bibliografico of the Unione delle Comunita Ebraiche Italiane, universities including Pisa, Padova, Bologna, Rome and Venice, the Italian Association for Jewish Studies, as well as by public and private archives have led to the assessment, localization, and contextualization of library holdings, manuscripts, official correspondence, burial epitaphs, Sifrei Torah, and documentation of Jewish Italian music traditions, folklore and linguistic practices. 

The collaboration between the Jewish communities, regional governments, and universities has given impulse to several database projects recording Jewish architectural sites, community and burial records, archeological findings and religious artifacts. Reflecting the high degree of integration of the Jewish communities in Italy, this assessment illuminated Jewish components within many collections that are not obviously related to Italian Jewish studies.

Micaela Procaccia, historian and archivist of the National Archives stated that “The archives of the Jewish communities and the other Italian Jewish institutions, as well as their members’ personal archives, represent a significant component of the Italian cultural patrimony, and at the same time, a component of the entire, equally important Jewish historical patrimony.”

CPL surveyed cataloguing and digitization projects in Italy as well as accessibility projects carried out by libraries and archives in Israel and the U.S.

The most conspicuous step toward a census of the Jewish cultural and artistic resources in Italy was taken in 1989 by the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities and the Italian Government through the creation of a multi-faceted legislative and operative project aimed to assess and preserve the archival, bibliographical, archeological, codicological, and architectural resources of Italian Jewry.

As part of this endeavor a preliminary census of communal registries and archives, communal and private libraries, as well as numerous personal archives of Jewish scholars, intellectual and political figures has been made available through the Centro Bibliografico of the Italian Jewish Communities. 

Specific projects have been set up to assess the status of and provide tutelage for the following:

1- Synagogues, ghettos and cemeteries.

2- Epigraphic documents

3- Jewish catacombs in Rome, Sicily and Sardinia

4- Jewish cemeteries and tombstones

5- Ketuboth and ceremonial art

6- Sifrei Torah (Collegio Rabbinico di Roma)

7- Holocaust archives (Centro Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, Milan)

8- Musical printed and recorded resources (Conservatorio Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

9- Notary registries and historical documentation of the Jewish communites in Southern Italy

Finally, codicological and paleographic census projects of Italian Jewish documents include the work of Professor Giuliano Tamani of University Cà Foscari of Venice and that of Professor Malachi Beit-Arie of Hebrew University. Both have been responsible for substantially advancing the availability of information in the field. While Prof. Beit-Arie has assembled what is considered the most complete database of Hebrew manuscripts in the world, Prof. Tamani has created an inventory of Italian bibliographies and catalogues of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books that currently represents one of the most important references for any project of digitization or digital cataloguing in Italy. In addition to these projects, Professor Gadi Luzzatto of University of Padua is realizing an online database of Italian Jewish bibliographic and archival catalogues.

Digital projects in Italian Jewish studies are imperative in making primary and secondary sources available and in facilitating their translation and dissemination.