The HardiBlog

As part of the Local Authority Collections of the Hardiman Library Archives, the minutes books of  Galway Urban District Council, ranging from 1899-1922, cover a key period in the development of Galway city and its environs. The Urban District Council was set-up after the 1898 Local Government Act, it replaced the Board of the Galway Town Commissioners. As an 'Urban District Council' rather than a 'Corporation' the body was subordinate to Galway County Council, in administrative terms this put Galway City on the same level as towns such as Athlone and Clonmel.  Galway Urban District council was responsible for the upkeep of Galway'’s roads, street lighting and the collection of tolls. Unlike it predecessor body the Galway Town Commissioners it was also responsible for the provision of 'social housing'. During the period covered by this collection a number of housing schemes in Galway city were undertaken by the Urban District Council, including the constru...

Last week, I wrote about the centuries of unsigned bookbindings which lie in our Special Collections and the difficulty of pinning down the year/ location/ craftsman involved. Our collections are not unique in this. There can also be a difficulty in pinning down bibliographic information, often the result of scant title-page and colophon detail, and printers’ devices can be used to fill such gaps in information. With issues of provenance, however, the types of clues provided (signatures, initials, stamps, bookplates, armorial detail, ex-libris) and the sources of information used to identify them ( search engines, bibliophile indices, censuses, street directories, image databases ) can be wide and varied. Take this detail from Joseph Cooper Walker’s A historical essay on the dress of the ancient and modern Irish ( Dublin : George Grierson, 1788 ). A gilt stamp, located at the top of the item’s ornately tooled spine, is the only ownership mark on the item. The tools of t...

With items dating back to the mid C15th, the style of bindings in NUIG’s special collections range from blind-tooled velvet and fragile sheepskin to simple stabbed quires and alum-tawed boards. Items are rarely signed, which was the norm during the early years of hand-printed book production, but this does not take away from the craftsmanship evident in many items. Thankfully, the method of using toolmarks to identify individual bookbinders or to, at the very least, narrow down the era and possibly location of a binding, is making the work of the rare books cataloguer somewhat easier An example of fine unsigned C18th work binds Some familiar letters between Mr. Locke, and several of his friends (London: A. and J. Churchill, 1708). The ‘Cambridge panel’ style of blocked binding is used here, a style which came into vogue in the late C17th and remained popular until the middle of the C18th, and generally used three panels of patterned leathers. This binding employs three separa...

Library Catalogue Maintenance Access to some Library services will be interrupted on  Tuesday  26th August from  16:00 -20:00  to facilitate an Oracle Database upgrade.     Access to the catalogue will be as normal, but real-time item location information will be impaired for a time. No self-check facility for borrowing of items will be available Books may be returned via the book sorter Booking of Group study rooms will not be possible Placing of Hold requests will not be possible No online renewal or online fines payment facilities will be available. If you have any queries about this upgrade activity, please contact the Service Desk Tel. x5777,  servicedesk@nuigalway.ie  

During August, we present to you Ireland's memorial records, 1914-1918 : being the names of Irishmen who fell in the Great European War, 1914-1918 (Dublin : Maunsel & Roberts, 1923) . Compiled by the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial, with decorative borders by Harry Clarke (1889-1931), this eight volume set was created to preserve and commemorate the memory of the thousands of Irishmen who died during the war. The volumes cover the entire island of Ireland, north and south, and contain the names of 49,647 individuals. It was compiled under the direction of the Earl of Ypres, and serves as a lasting memorial to the thousands of Irishmen who died during the Great War. Corner detail Later scholars have noted, however, that there are other Great War casualties from Ireland whose names are not included in the memorial records. For details of other useful sources on this period, we refer you to our guide to sources on Ireland and the Great War: copies are avai...

On Thursday, July 31st from 16:00 to 20:00, the following services will be unavailable:    ·          Student Records (Quercus)  ·          Careers & Placement (Student Placement Self Service & Student Placement   Administration)  ·          Exam Processing Services (Academic Web Services for Staff and Students) including access to exam timetables, exam results, past exam papers and PAC  ·          Campus Account Self Service (CASS)  This downtime is to facilitate a database upgrade. If you have any queries, please contact the Service Desk (Tel. x5777 eMail servicedesk@nuigalway.ie).    

Please note that on Wednesday, July 30th from 11:00 to 21:00 , the following service will be unavailable: · Exam Processing Services (Academic Web Services for Staff and Students) including access to exam timetables, exam results, past exam papers and PAC. On Wednesday, July 30th from 13:00 to 21:00 , the following service will be unavailable:   · Campus Account Self Service (CASS).   On Wednesday, July 30th from 13:00 to 21:00 , the following services may experience intermittent service disruption:   · Financial Management (Agresso)   · HR/Payroll (Core)   · Student Records (Quercus)   · Careers & Placement (Student Placement Self Service & Student Placement Administration)   · Library catalogue service (Aleph)   · IRIS   · TDS suite software   This downtime is to facilitate an Oracle infrastructure upgrade. If you have any queries, please contact the Ser...