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The photo shows the open black gate with the word "Library" in gold letters in the foreground with some yellow leaves that have fallen to the ground. The half-circle shaped part of the front of the main building of the National Library of Ireland can be seen through the open doorway of the gate.
An autumnal view of the gate and the main building of the National Library of Ireland.

Role at the National Library of Ireland: 1989-1997[edit]

When Patricia Donlon was appointed to the role of director in 1989, almost a year after the last director had retired,[1][2] the National Library of Ireland was an institution characterised by an absence of sufficient staff,[3][1] resources,[2][4] storage capacity,[5][6] and financing.[3][1] The first major step Dr. Donlon took to improve matters at the NLI was the establishment of new security measures to protect the collections from being stolen.[5][6] Parallel to increased security, inventory was also carried out to concretely determine how much loss the collections had suffered.[6][7] This was no easy endeavour, considering the collections, which, at the time, amounted to five million items, were either catalogued on paper[2][6] or not catalogued at all.[6][8]

The year 1991 marked the official opening of the Manuscript Reading Room[9][10] housed in the former location of the Kildare Street Club at 2-3 Kildare Street.[10][8] In the same year, after the stipulated fifty-year period ended, the NLI opened the letters Paul Léon, friend, literary agent and legal consultant to James Joyce, had bequeathed to the Library.[11][12] The correspondence was subsequently made available to the public and a detailed catalogue entitled The James Joyce-Paul Léon Papers in the National Library of Ireland, with a foreword by Patricia Donlon, was published in 1992.[13][14][15]

Under Dr. Donlon's leadership, the National Library of Ireland was the first Irish institution to declare its mission and aims for the future with the publication of its Strategic Plan 1992-1997.[10][16][17] In the document, which immediately received financial support from the government,[18][19] the NLI commits to innovating aspects such as its service offering, use of information technology, and structural facilities.[10][18] When Patricia Donlon joined the NLI, there was not a single computer in the Library.[2][8] With the help of IBM, information technology could be introduced,[6][20] enabling digital cataloguing, which would eventually render inventory by hand unnecessary.[2][6]

In 1994, the NLI showcased key items from their collections in an exhibition and associated publication entitled Treasures from the National Library.[21][22][23]

Patricia Donlon shouldered an immense workload both as director of the NLI and as an executive member of various national and international organisations.[6][17] By 1997, when she retired from her position as director due to health reasons,[21][24] she had significantly reformed the Library despite continued underfunding.[10][17][21]

  1. ^ a b c Foster, Ronan (January 10, 1989). "New director for National Library named". The Irish Times. p. 10.
  2. ^ a b c d e Keogh, Olive (October 30, 1992). "Dr Pat Donlon of the National Library: Adapting to a new age". The Irish Times. pp. A8.
  3. ^ a b Cunningham, Francine (January 20, 1989). "Pat Donlon: an optimist for the National Library". The Irish Times. p. 10.
  4. ^ MacGonigal, Ciaran (January 11, 1992). "Change and decay in all (well, most) I see". The Irish Times. pp. A11.
  5. ^ a b McKenna, Gene (December 6, 1990). "Hi-tech heritage plan". Irish Independent. p. 3.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Myers, Kevin (December 1, 1990). "Bringing order to a home of Irish civilisation". The Irish Times. pp. A12.
  7. ^ Siggins, Lorna (May 28, 1990). "General amnesty on stolen library books proposed". The Irish Times. p. 4.
  8. ^ a b c O’Toole, Fintan (July 31, 1989). "Shelving the Library's problems". The Irish Times. p. 14.
  9. ^ Millar, Frank (January 22, 1991). "Haughey opens new manuscripts room". The Irish Times. p. 2.
  10. ^ a b c d e Long, Gerard (2006-10-26), Black, Alistair; Hoare, Peter (eds.), "The National Library of Ireland", The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland (1 ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 266–276, doi:10.1017/chol9780521780971.024, ISBN 978-1-139-05532-1, retrieved 2023-11-19
  11. ^ Battersby, Eileen (April 6, 1992). "51-year wait ends as Joyce letters revealed". The Irish Times. p. 2.
  12. ^ Donlon, Patricia (1992). "Foreword". In Fahy, Catherine (ed.). The James Joyce - Paul Léon papers in the National Library of Ireland: a catalogue. National Library of Ireland. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. pp. v–vii. ISBN 978-0-907328-20-9.
  13. ^ Fahy, Catherine (1993). "The James Joyce/Paul Léon Papers in the National Library of Ireland: Observations on Their Cataloguing and Research Potential". Joyce Studies Annual. 4: 3–15. ISSN 1049-0809.
  14. ^ Reynolds, Mary T. (1992). "Review of The James Joyce/Paul Léon Papers in the National Library of Ireland". James Joyce Quarterly. 30 (1): 121–124. ISSN 0021-4183.
  15. ^ Fahy, Catherine (1992). The James Joyce-Paul Léon papers in the National library of Ireland: a catalogue. National library. National library of Ireland. ISBN 978-0-907328-20-9.
  16. ^ "The National Library". The Irish Times. January 5, 1994. p. 10.
  17. ^ a b c Siggins, Lorna (January 18, 1996). "No way to treat a (National) library". The Irish Times. p. 12.
  18. ^ a b Siggins, Lorna (August 4, 1992). "An Irishwoman's Diary". The Irish Times. p. 9.
  19. ^ "Library grant just the ticket". Evening Herald. July 1, 1992. p. 18.
  20. ^ "IBM bring word power to National Library". Evening Press. February 26, 1991. p. 4.
  21. ^ a b c "THE RELUCTANT CIVIL SERVANT". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  22. ^ "Drogheda firm's book lists 100 treasures in the National Library". The Independent. May 13, 1994. p. 11.
  23. ^ Kissane, Noel (1995). Treasures from the National Library of Ireland: exhibition held at the National Library of Ireland in 1994 (Reprint ed.). Dublin: Boyne Valley Honey Company National Library of Ireland. ISBN 978-0-9517823-4-7.
  24. ^ "No suitable person found to fill post of library director". The Irish Times. October 16, 1998. p. 6.
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