Monday 16 June 2014

Valuation Office to digitise Cancelled/Revision Books

The Valuation Office (VO) is inviting tenders to kick-start a project to digitise its collection of Griffith's Valuation's Cancelled Land Books (aka Revision Books).

Regular readers of Irish Genealogy News will remember that the VO has been trialling a computer-based viewing system at its offices in the Irish Life Building, Dublin, since the turn of the year (read the blogpost here), with the Cancelled Books for counties Mayo, Kerry and Tipperary, plus those for both Dublin City and County, searchable on a lone computer terminal.

The books for counties Cork and Limerick are in the process of being scanned and will join the viewing line-up in due course. I'm told more computers may be forthcoming, too.

Welcome though the office-based database is, it is limited. It is available only to personal visitors, for a start, and it's essentially a browse facility.

The proposed digitisation project, which would result in fully indexed, public access to this important collection, would be a HUGE leap forward.

It's early days yet. The tender invitation talks of a maximum four-year project to be completed in four parts, subject to the availability of funding, and will involve the scanning of 'approximately 4,700 volumes of the records of those counties not yet digitised' and an estimated 1.6million images.

The tender deadline is tomorrow (etender ID S14-20).

NOTE: The Cancelled/Revision Books for the six Northern Ireland counties are already digitised and online (at PRONI).