Saturday, November 14, 2009

New Resource at National Library of Ireland Website

Thank you to Toronto Branch's Linda Reid for this 'info'.

Marian Press (Toronto Branch) has discovered that the National Library of Ireland has launched a wonderful new resource. See: http://sources.nli.ie/About/Contents

Sources: A National Library of Ireland database for Irish research, contains over 180,000 catalogue records for Irish manuscripts, and for articles in Irish periodicals.

You can search across:

* All of the National Library's manuscripts catalogued up to the 1980s
* Irish manuscripts held in other libraries and archives in Ireland and worldwide, listed between the 1940s and the 1970s
* Articles, reviews and other content that appeared in over 150 Irish periodicals (download a full list of the journals) up to 1969

Article records give details of the author, the title, and the citation, as well as information about how to access the periodicals in the National Library of Ireland or elsewhere. Manuscript records provide key details about the manuscript including the title, in addition to where it is held and its manuscript number. All records have subject headings, which can themselves be used as searches.

Record contents generally represent the decisions taken during the original cataloguing and indexing project, and reflect the holdings of libraries and archives as they were when that work was carried out. Read more about the history of Sources.

Irish researchers will recognize this has the online successor to Hayes' Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilization and Sources for the History of Irish Civilization: Articles in Irish Periodicals.

Remember that this is "just" a catalogue (but what a catalogue!). You can't click through to see actual documents but you can order copies of manuscripts that are in the National Library of Ireland collection. Details available on the website.

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