Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive
Dublin Public Libraries, incorporating the City Archives, is the largest library authority in Ireland, serving over half a million people[1] through a network of 21 branch libraries and a number of specialist services.[2] It is a unit of Dublin City Council, headed by the City Librarian; there is a separate role of City Archivist.
Services
Aside from the lending of books, audiobooks and DVDs, and e-books and digital newspapers and magazines, services include the provision of reference materials, and the operation of the Dublin City Archives and the Dublin and Irish Local Studies Collection. Further operations include the Business Library and Music Library within the Central Library, plus a recording studio, the Creative Studio / Maker Space, at Ballyfermot branch. Wi-Fi internet access is available in all branches. The Music Library holds CDs, DVDs, vocal scores, miniature scores, sheet music, part-works, libretti, and songbooks, and there are listening booths, a keyboard and a CD-track database.
The service aims to promote the concept of "lifelong learning in the community", offering a range of opportunities for all ages and interests to "develop life chances and new learning skills". Most branches have study desks and quiet areas. The library service runs an ongoing programme of events including lectures, readings, recitals and exhibitions, and supports language learning through online learning and conversation exchange in foreign languages. There are also reading groups and book clubs, and these and community groups such as historical societies, art groups and writing groups, can also book meeting rooms in some branches.
Special services include support for particular groups, include multicultural services, a "housebound service", and services to prisons.
An electronic facility, databases.dublincity.ie, includes online databases of Dublin City Electoral Lists, a Directory of Dublin Graveyards, Ancient Freemen of Dublin and a community memory database which lists commemorative plaques around the city.
Branches
The Dublin City Library and Archive
The Dublin City Archives contains records of the civic government of Dublin from 1171 to the late 20th century. These records include Dublin City Council and committee minutes, account books, correspondence, reports, court records, charity petitions, title deeds, maps and plans and drawings all of which document the development of Dublin over eight centuries.
The Dublin and Irish Collection holds an extensive range of books relating to Dublin and Ireland to which are regularly added new publications. In addition to imprints dating from the 19th century, a considerable collection of older material is held of which the Gilbert Collection, with material from 16th to 18th centuries, forms the nucleus.
Other resources include the Dix Collection of mainly 17th and 18th century Dublin and Irish imprints, the Yeats Collection, the Children's Book Collection and imprints of publishers such as the Dun Emer and Cuala Press. The Dublin Collection holds material relevant to Dublin City including books, newspapers and journals, photographs, maps, prints, drawings, theatre programmes, playbills, posters, ballad sheets, political cartoons, audio-visual material and ephemera. A collection of Thom's Dublin street directories and other Dublin and Irish directories is also maintained.
Housed alongside the Dublin Collection, the Irish Collection extends to subjects of national interest and includes books and other materials relating to Ireland, by Irish authors, or in the Irish language. The collection includes available published sources for Irish genealogy and family history.
Carnegie Libraries
The philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) funded the building of four Carnegie Libraries in the Dublin City Libraries branch network, Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street; Rathmines Library (terracotta by Gibbs and Canning of Tamworth, Staffordshire); Pembroke Library and Charleville Mall Library. Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street was originally opened in 1909. It was renovated and extended into two adjoining late-Georgian houses, reopening in 2003. Rathmines Library was built in 1913 and reopened following renovation in 2011. Pembroke Library, built in 1927 and opened in 1929, and was the last Carnegie Library opened in Ireland. The writer Frank O'Connor was appointed the first Librarian of Pembroke Library in December 1929.[3]
Prizes and cultural initiatives
One of the world's most valuable literary prizes, the International Dublin Literary Award, is administered by Dublin City Libraries.[4] The application for designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, part of the Creative Cities Network, was initiated and led by Dublin City Libraries.[5]
One Dublin One Book
Since 2006, Dublin City Libraries have promoted a particular book with a series of public events.[6]
| Year | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | At Swim-Two-Birds (1939) | Flann O'Brien |
| 2007 | A Long Long Way (2005) | Sebastian Barry |
| 2008 | Gulliver's Travels (1726) | Jonathan Swift |
| 2009 | Dracula (1897) | Bram Stoker |
| 2010 | The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) | Oscar Wilde |
| 2011 | Ghost Light (2010) | Joseph O'Connor |
| 2012 | Dubliners (1914) | James Joyce |
| 2013 | Strumpet City (1969) | James Plunkett |
| 2014 | If You Ever Go, poetry anthology, ed. by Pat Doran and Gerard Smyth | |
| 2015 | The Barrytown Trilogy (1987–91) | Roddy Doyle |
| 2016 | Fallen (2014) | Lia Mills |
| 2017 | Echoland (2013) | Joe Joyce |
| 2018 | The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, ed. by Sinéad Gleeson | |
| 2019 | The Country Girls Trilogy (1960–64) | Edna O'Brien |
| 2020 | Tatty (2004) | Christine Dwyer Hickey |
| 2021 | Leonard and Hungry Paul (2019) | Ronan Hession |