International Access to Academy Library Holdings Project

Copperplate engraving from the Haliday Pamphlet and Tract Collection entitled The repeal ; or The Irish manufacturer of 1832.
A melo drama, in three acts.
 

One of the library’s priorities is to create comprehensive records for the extensive print and manuscript collections held by the Academy. We also aim to make these records available to the research community and the public via up-to-date online catalogues, in the belief that good catalogues ensure the visibility of collections and enhance their value for researchers.

In 2002 we embarked on a major cataloguing and preservation project - the International Access to Academy Library Holdings Project (IAALH). Our objectives:

•  to catalogue or recatalogue the many early imprints which form a vital part of our collections - more details
• to catalogue selected archival collections, e.g. the Ordnance Survey Letters, the Richard Robert Madden Papers, the Justice Robert Day Papers, the Françoise Henry archive, the John Windele antiquarian collection - more details
•  to catalogue the drawings of Thomas Johnson Westropp, MRIA, (1860-1922), George Victor du Noyer, MRIA, (1817-69), and the drawings included in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs - more details

The final cataloguing element of the project is well in hand:

This comprises the Haliday Pamphlet and Tract collections, a large holding consisting of c. 30,000 items, amassed by Charles Haliday (1789-1866), a Dublin merchant with a deep interest in the history of Dublin, and of Ireland in general. The collection covers a huge range of topics: subjects include history, economic and social history, politics, ecclesiastical history, education, law, literature, medicine, agriculture and industry. Pamphlets up to and including the year 1828 have been catalogued, and tracts up to 1816.

The project also includes a preservation element, viz. the microfilming of the pamphlet and tract collections and the Ordnance Survey Letters for preservation purposes and the digitisation of these collections to ensure access. Microfilms have been produced to Mellon standards and the master films will serve as preservation surrogates for the original documents. To ensure the greatest level of access to the documents, a selection of the microfilms will be digitised and it is our aim to make the digital records available on the web. We have also photographed and are digitising the collections of drawings which have been catalogued under the project. To date 2,000 images have been scanned onto the drawings’ records.

The Project Team and Project Schedule

The remaining project team consists of a lead cataloguer and two cataloguing interns. The cataloguing element of the project is due for completion in autumn 2011.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the generous financial support of the Atlantic Philanthropies who believe in the value of the project and have committed €700,000 funding over the past six years. We acknowledge the commitment of the Higher Education Authority to the staffing of the project. We further acknowledge the support and sterling cooperation of Trinity College Library who were our partners in the microfilming process. 

To date the following print collections have been recatalogued and allocated Library of Congress Subject Headings: 

•  the Moore Library collection consisting of 16th- to 19th-century books of interest to classical scholars, historians and students of literature. The collection belonged to Thomas Moore, Hon. MRIA, (1779-1852), the author of Moore’s Irish melodies and of the biographies of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Byron and others. The books were presented to the Academy by Moore’s widow in 1855. ( Special Collections: The Library of Thomas Moore.)
• the Early Scientific Book collection consisting of c. 2,600 items covering the period 1600-1800 and bearing mainly continental imprints. This collection includes items belonging to Dr Richard Kirwan, MRIA, (1733-1812), distinguished chemist and mineralogist, who was a member of the academies of Berlin, Philadelphia and Uppsala inter alia.  (Special Collections: Early scientific works.)
• other pre-1850 collections (c. 6,000 titles).

Archival Collections

• the Ordnance Survey Letters, a collection of forty volumes of manuscript letters, mainly written by John O’Donovan, MRIA, (1801-61), as he carried out fieldwork during the Ordnance Survey six-inch mapping project during the period 1833 to 1846. The Letters cover almost all of the counties and deal with a range of antiquarian and folklife topics.
• the Madden Papers, the papers of Richard Robert Madden (1798-1886), biographer of the United Irishmen, medical doctor, magistrate, reformer and one-time Colonial Secretary in Western Australia. The papers relate mainly to Madden’s time in Australia and Cuba.
• the Day Papers, the papers of Justice Robert Day (1745-1841), a Kerry magistrate who served during the period which included the insurrection of 1798. The papers include diaries, correspondence and charges delivered to Grand Juries of Ireland, 1790-1814.
• the Françoise Henry, MRIA, (1902-82) collection of archaeological/art history materials. This extensive collection includes correspondence, notes and photographs and complements the Henry collection held by NUI, Dublin.
•  the John Windele (1801-65) collection, an important collection of papers and correspondence dealing with antiquarian matters, finds of antiquities and the topography of Munster and in particular of County Cork.

antiquarian Drawings 

• the Thomas Johnson Westropp, MRIA, (1860-1922) collection of antiquarian drawings covering most of the counties, and including some views of Scottish and German scenes. The collection consists of almost 3,000 drawings.
• eleven volumes of antiquarian drawings (900 items), executed by George Victor du Noyer, MRIA, (1817-69)
• the Ordnance Survey Memoir drawings, a collection of 1,585 drawings incorporated in the memoirs, collected by soldiers working on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map project. Although the memoirs were published by the Institute of Irish Studies, the Queen’s University of Belfast during the 1990s, most of the drawings were not included in the published version. The cataloguing of these drawings has been co-funded by the Esmé Mitchell Trust Belfast. The Academy intends to publish an edition of the memoir drawings in 2012.