Vatican City, Dicastery for Communication

The mission of the Dicastery for Communication is clear: to deliver the Pope’s messages and official positions to the world, accurately and faithfully. At the foundation of that mission lies the integrity of primary source materials. The Dicastery safeguards centuries of historical documents and photographs, rare bound volumes, ageing manuscripts, and one-of-a-kind archival images. These materials form the backbone of accurate reporting. But they faced a critical challenge. They had to preserve these invaluable materials. At the same time, they needed to provide them quickly to media organisations around the world. In other words, they had to achieve both preservation and accessibility, without compromise.

Not Features. Reliability.
What the Dicastery required was not simply scanning capability. They needed a reliable, long-term operational foundation. Their requirements were clear:
1. Non-contact scanning that protects rare and fragile books
2. High-resolution image reproduction
3. Processing power for large volumes of documents
4. Stability for extended operation
5. Secure, dependable performance in a protected environment
The solution that comprehensively met these demands was PFU’s document scanners: ScanSnap SV600 and the fi Series.

Enabling Preservation and Productivity, Simultaneously The ScanSnap SV600 digitises bound materials without disbinding them. It captures delicate historical documents in high definition, without physical stress. Meanwhile, the fi Series processes large volumes of documents quickly and reliably, maintaining operational speed while ensuring archival-quality output. Together, they created an operational infrastructure that enables the Dicastery to preserve the past while communicating in the present.

Embedded as Core Infrastructure
The Dicastery transitioned from paper-centred storage to a digitally structured archive, transforming into a data-enabled operation.
The results:
1. A searchable, high-quality digital archive
2. Faster delivery of official materials to global media
3. Accelerated verification of historical statements
4. Reduced risk of misinformation
5. Cross-functional utilisation of photographic archives
Several years after implementation, the ScanSnap SV600 and fi Series continue to operate reliably.
At the same time, a comprehensive digitisation project covering the entire library is underway, including several thousand photographs to be scanned. In the future, a selection of these images will be made available on the website, enabling broader access to materials that are not currently accessible to the public.

Specifically, by leveraging the ELO document management application (an enterprise document management system) in combination with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) technology, the Vatican plans to scan photographs at 600 dpi to support more advanced archiving and information retrieval.

“PFU’s document scanners are more than devices. They are part of our operational infrastructure. They support preservation, verification, and communication—everything we do.” - Dicastery for Communication, Vatican City

What matters is not short-term efficiency.
It is long-term reliability. This is not a challenge unique to one institution. National libraries, public archives, museums, universities, and government agencies around the world face the same reality: managing historical materials while delivering accurate information quickly.
It is not preservation or access. It is preservation and access. PFU delivers proven document solutions that make both possible.

*Images shown are illustrative and may not represent the actual facilities due to security reasons. Some details have been modified to protect confidentiality.