"As Ireland’s memory-keeper, we added thousands of books, newspapers, manuscripts, photographs and more to our collections this year, including the writer’s archive of JP Donleavy, while hundreds of thousands of volumes were moved to new, safe storage, where they will be preserved for generations to come.
“As technology changes, so does the way in which we preserve and share the story of Ireland. We also had 20 million engagements across our digital platforms in 2019, archived 550 websites, and digitised 23,000 items – ensuring our physical collections are available to as broad an audience as possible – while our partnership with UCD to create the Museum of Literature Ireland also allows us to showcase more of the Library’s treasures and expertise.”
Some of the highlights of 2019 include:
- More than 280,000 visits were made to the Library’s various sites
- 350,000 volumes were moved to new, safe storage
- 200,000 visits were made to six free exhibitions
- 29,000 people attended events, tours and workshops
- 27,000 research visits were made to the Library’s reading rooms
- 20 million online engagements were made across the Library’s digital platforms
- Thousands of books, newspapers, manuscripts, photographs and more were acquired
- 23,000 items were digitised in the Library’s digital studios
- 550 websites were archived
- Six arms were granted by the Chief Herald of Ireland
- 15 exhibitions travelled all over Ireland
You can find out more below in this short video from the NLI (I recommend switching the audio off... the music is painful).