The National Library of Ireland: serving remote users

Citation

aga, V. (2003), "The National Library of Ireland: serving remote users", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2003.12231aab.006

The National Library of Ireland: serving remote users

The National Library of Ireland: serving remote users

Established in 1877, the collections policy of the National Library of Ireland is to obtain, preserve and make accessible materials relating to Ireland. It also aims to acquire reference materials to support this collection. By the standards of European national libraries the collections are small, but they are diverse. As well as printed books there are very substantial collections of prints, photographs, and manuscripts. It is considering the collection of other media and doing research into film of Irish interest held overseas.

The Library does not have a loan collection and in relation to printed books has two major aims. The first is the development of a comprehensive collection of books published in Ireland and books of Irish interest published elsewhere. In working towards this objective the Library has the advantage that Irish publishing output is small so it is realistic to aim to collect all Irish published books and pamphlets and to establish links with local libraries to trace material of local interest that might otherwise escape attention. The collecting effort is helped by copyright legislation, which entitles the Library to a copy of every book published in the Republic of Ireland.

Having built as good a collection of current Irish printed material as possible, the second major aim of the Library is to contribute to Irish bibliography by developing appropriate search facilities in its online catalogues. For example, a publisher index is being developed to allow the user to carry out a search by publisher and year. The completion of a programme of retrospective conversion of various older catalogues of books is a Library priority.

In the area of printed books, therefore, the Library aims to further Irish bibliographical research by offering to remote users, through its online catalogue, comprehensiveness of coverage and appropriate search facilities. However, in the area of its graphic collections, the Library aims to go further and to make very substantial parts of its collections available digitally so that research can be carried out remotely. Already, thousands of images have been digitised so that a representative selection of the Library's 250,000 photographs and 100,000 prints and drawings are online. These are linked to entries in the online catalogue. In the case of photographs, there are also several individual databases, each allowing text-only searches of a collection. For the immediate future the Library aims to increase very substantially the numbers of images digitised. Having created this large electronic book of proofs, the Library also plans to review how it can best meet the anticipated subsequent increased demand for high quality digital copies.

There are no immediate plans for the large-scale digitisation of the Library's collection of manuscripts, which number millions of items. Preservation microfilm of this type of material is still seen as the main priority. However, a small number of the Library's Gaelic manuscripts have been digitised and made available on the Internet through the Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) project, managed by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Plans to begin putting on the Library's Web site electronic versions of the collection lists of the Department of Manuscripts will be implemented very shortly.

It is clear from the above that, in planning services for all users, the Library is placing great emphasis on the development of its online services. However, it will also continue to serve its remote users in more traditional ways. It has an active and diverse publication programme, mostly in co-operation with external publishers. Autumn 2002 publications included The National Library of Ireland: One Hundred and Twenty Five Years and Royal Roots – Republican Inheritance: The Survival of the Office of Arms. In previous years the Library put emphasis on travelling exhibitions based on copies of materials in its collections. It is again considering a programme of such exhibitions, with material from the Library's National Photographic Archive being in particular demand.

The granting of coats of arms is a service to users not normally associated with a national library but is one that the Library inherited from the Office of the Ulster Kings of Arms, established in 1552. Here, online systems are used to promote this traditional service and to display an image of each grant of arms, which may be personal, corporate, or civic.

The Library is committed to the promotion of co-operation in order to ensure that Ireland has a full range of national library services, whether or not these services are provided by the National Library of Ireland. Co-operation may be at a European level, for example CENL – the Conference of European National Libraries, at a British Isles level, for example SCONUL, and at a national level, for example CONUL – the Consortium of National and University Libraries. Factors that impact on national library services in Ireland are the small size of the country and the existence of Trinity College Library, which is a depository library for all books published in Britain and Ireland. In many areas the most appropriate course of action for the National Library of Ireland is to join with others in co-operative action, such as furthering preservation and conservation aims through the National Preservation Office, which operates at a British Isles level.

In the area of interlending and document supply, one of the key national forums on which the Library is represented is COLICO – the Committee on Library Co-Operation in Ireland. This was set up in 1977 to promote co-operation between libraries of all sorts; its areas of interest include resource sharing, information dissemination, and staff training and development. Recent research carried out into interlending and document supply for COLICO by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, the Library Council, indicates that Irish libraries are very dependent on the BLDSC for both monographs and photocopies. About 75 per cent of Irish interlending transactions are processed there. While there may be considerable scope to meet more of the demand from Irish sources, this statistic does make the point that efficient and cost effective solutions to service issues may well involve the crossing of national boundaries.