Services Available at the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room

Archives and Special Collections Reading Room

The Archives and Special Collections Reading Room is located on the ground floor of the Hardiman Research building, the new extension to the James Hardiman Library. Being located at the heart of campus, the Reading Room is a hub for scholars to undertake research and encounter the rich archival and special collections unique to NUI Galway.

State-of-the-art facilities include a 36-seat capacity room and access to a range of research collections as well as leading technologies in digitisation, preservation and access.

Services and collections available at the Reading room include the archive collections covering a wide range of disciplines. Local authority records range from the 15^th century Galway Corporation through to Galway Town commissioners and Galway Urban Council of the 20^th Century. Academic collections include records of some of the first professors of Queen's College Galway; Irish language collections include Lamhscribhinní Dubhghlas de hÍde and others. Landed estate collections in the West of Ireland include the Wilson-Lynch papers and O'Connor-Donnelan papers.

Leading literary and theatre collections include the John McGahern archive, Thomas Kilroy archive as well as the archives of Druid Theatre, Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, the Galway Arts Festival, Siobhan McKenna, Arthur Shields and the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.

Discovering the archives

Pioneering projects in digital preservation and access include the archives of the Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre of Ireland, the archive of film-maker Éamon de Buitléar and the performance tapes of Druid Theatre.

The Special Collections service offers access to a rich and varied rare and printed book library, spanning a huge array of disciplines and dating back to include the original library collection of Queen's College Galway. The collection ranges from the 15^th Century to the present day. Further collections include a range of maps such as the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, dating to the 1840s, University theses, extensive local studies, historic newspapers and microfilm.

Named book collections such as those collected by Séamus Ó Duilearga, the Henry Library and the Ring-Ling North Library are examples of rich and varied libraries collected by their respective donors.

Microfilm collections include a range of research material including Irish Folklore Commission: Coimisiun le Bealoideas Éireann, History of Science & Technology: the papers of Joseph Banks, Charles Babbage and Hans Sloane,  State Papers relating to Ireland from the sixteenth century, the Egerton manuscripts, J.M. Synge manuscripts, Holloway Diaries and numerous other collections.

To help with your research and in learning more about our collections and how they can benefit your research a team of expert archivists and special collections librarians are available for consultation.

From undergraduates to postgraduates and scholars of all levels and disciplines, all are welcome to use or services and reading room. The Archive and Special Collections room is a space for you to encounter and discover and to make the most of the resources of the James Hardiman Library.

Visit http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/archives/ or http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/specialcollections/ for more information.