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Recent changes
A lot of changes have occurred in Irish libraries over the course of the last 10 to 15 years, and it seems to this observer, that it has always trended recently to having fewer books and making them less available, hence making things like history research more difficult if not at times impossible. As a stray example Cavan County Library and Westmeath County Library were redeveloped during this time and definitely have fewer of the important old history source books and journals than they had, and in the case of Cavan especially, and Westmeath to a degree, they only make them available in locked glass cabinets that you can only get opened by staff for a few given books at a time. That policy also applied to Blanchardstown Library, beside the shopping centre, but now in fact almost all the local and Irish history books that they had in the top storey there have vanished recently.
Also we continue to lose Catholic libraries at a huge rate, and incidentally its noticeable that the main digital online collections seem to omit digitising many of the important Irish Catholic Journals (like the Catholic Bulletin, the Irish Ecclesiastical Record and the Wolfe Tone Annuals, the latter been important for Republican history but actually the editor, Brian O’Higgins, was also a committed Catholic). The closure of some monasteries for example has led to this (e.g. Kilnacrott in Co. Cavan) but also institutions like the very important old Jesuit library at Milltown in Dublin, which has gone recently. It contained a vast number of very old frequently Latin volumes, some transferred to DCU, we have been told, and a few held elsewhere by the Jesuits, but I suspect probably most have been destroyed. Meanwhile the Catholic Library on Merrion Square in Dublin seems to be under siege. A few years ago they had to use up their savings trying to fight off an attempt by DCU to take it over and now an academic from UCD, Angelo Bottone, has resigned from their Board and reported them to the Charity Regulator. With the vast bureaucracy necessary for all small bodies in the modern Irish communist state, its frequently the case that voluntary bodies cannot successfully keep going if they have to stay on top of this paperwork, so this libraries head is in the ‘white martyrdom’ (the phrase used about modern bureaucracy) noose.
Another example here is exhibit A, the James Joyce library in UCD, traditionally the largest library in Ireland in terms of books on open access. This writer is very well aware of this library, where I did my degree in history and economics and visited periodically since, and currently it has, by my estimation, about a third to a quarter of the number of books in it that used to be there. Yes, progressively over the last few years, about two thirds to three quarters of the library has been gutted of books, they have vanished from the open shelves. Of course all this has been applauded by the usual suspects in the Irish Times and whatever, its an award winning library now, its great, now that they don’t have so many books!
Trying to research with books not on shelves
What they will tell you is that there are a lot more books in stores attached to the library and in the Special Collection section. But in both cases you need to make special arrangements to access any of those books, in the case of the stores they say it will take at least a day and in the Special Collections maybe about a week, and probably you would only be able to see about five books at a time after you make such an appointment.
Hence they claim there is no great inconvenience, you can see the books that way (if they are really still there, of which more anon) but in fact that methodology destroys a lot of historical and other types of research, in practice. To illustrate this consider a hypothetical example, we will say I am trying to do the history of Clonakilty. As part of this I need to examine the British Historical Manuscript Commission books, the HMC. This Commission was set up in the UK in the 19th century to catalogue and publish manuscripts scattered across stately homes in the UK (and to a degree in Ireland) and is a treasure trove of historical data on Clonakilty, you can be sure, and everywhere else. So if it is on the shelves in UCD, which it was until very recently, all you do is go across the hundred or so volumes and flick through each index for a Clonakilty reference, then select out whatever volumes seems to have entries of interest and go through them. Since looking at the indexes won’t take more than a few seconds per book for the experienced researcher, the whole job of looking at these hundred or so volumes might take only a few hours.
Now how do you do that if you have to access each volume separately, by appointment, from the stores or the Special Collections? It could take months to go through 100 volumes at 5 or so volumes at each appointment (with sometimes a week between each appointment)? There is just no comparison between volumes on open storage and those you can only get to by appointment, it is vastly longer to do any research the latter way. Yes some of these volumes are on the net, in places like archive.org, but the emphasis is on some, by no means all, and I will defy you to find the index and the entry in an online volume in the matter of seconds it takes with a book on a shelf.
Destruction of Books
But that's not all, the above assumes that the books are still available. Typically these libraries will continue to catalogue these books, in their online lists, but sometimes when you actually go through the trouble of making that appointment etc, they just say they looked for the book and it isn’t there. Why they aren’t there we can guess from this reference from a few years ago by a member of staff in UCD:
Why are they doing this?
Since this change in library practice, of destroying some books and making nearly all of them available only by appointment of some type, is so widespread I think we can say that its a definite policy of the powers that be, so why are they doing this then? A few guesses:
– It obviously puts historical and other research firmly into the digital prison system described elsewhere on this site. Obviously if I have to register for a library card and then need to go through a digital system to register my interest in said book and attach to it my personal details on the library card then we are well within that prison system so described.
– In practice this great inconvenience in doing research only effects independent and poorer scholars. The powers that be, when they go to write books frequently have an army of researchers working for them, sometimes one researcher per chapter I saw for a recent book by a well promoted author, so obviously this new system has advantages in helping to thwart any opposition to the established line in any given area.
– It tends to promote certain books and blanks out others very successfully. Meaning that the few volumes recommended by the academics on the various courses will probably be on the shelves while other books less in favour disappear more from view. When books are on shelves mainly, then you could just trip across a new book in the section you are interested in, but if the only public access you have is a listing on a computer catalogue then its very unlikely you will trip across these out of favour books.
A lot of changes have occurred in Irish libraries over the course of the last 10 to 15 years, and it seems to this observer, that it has always trended recently to having fewer books and making them less available, hence making things like history research more difficult if not at times impossible. As a stray example Cavan County Library and Westmeath County Library were redeveloped during this time and definitely have fewer of the important old history source books and journals than they had, and in the case of Cavan especially, and Westmeath to a degree, they only make them available in locked glass cabinets that you can only get opened by staff for a few given books at a time. That policy also applied to Blanchardstown Library, beside the shopping centre, but now in fact almost all the local and Irish history books that they had in the top storey there have vanished recently.
Also we continue to lose Catholic libraries at a huge rate, and incidentally its noticeable that the main digital online collections seem to omit digitising many of the important Irish Catholic Journals (like the Catholic Bulletin, the Irish Ecclesiastical Record and the Wolfe Tone Annuals, the latter been important for Republican history but actually the editor, Brian O’Higgins, was also a committed Catholic). The closure of some monasteries for example has led to this (e.g. Kilnacrott in Co. Cavan) but also institutions like the very important old Jesuit library at Milltown in Dublin, which has gone recently. It contained a vast number of very old frequently Latin volumes, some transferred to DCU, we have been told, and a few held elsewhere by the Jesuits, but I suspect probably most have been destroyed. Meanwhile the Catholic Library on Merrion Square in Dublin seems to be under siege. A few years ago they had to use up their savings trying to fight off an attempt by DCU to take it over and now an academic from UCD, Angelo Bottone, has resigned from their Board and reported them to the Charity Regulator. With the vast bureaucracy necessary for all small bodies in the modern Irish communist state, its frequently the case that voluntary bodies cannot successfully keep going if they have to stay on top of this paperwork, so this libraries head is in the ‘white martyrdom’ (the phrase used about modern bureaucracy) noose.
Another example here is exhibit A, the James Joyce library in UCD, traditionally the largest library in Ireland in terms of books on open access. This writer is very well aware of this library, where I did my degree in history and economics and visited periodically since, and currently it has, by my estimation, about a third to a quarter of the number of books in it that used to be there. Yes, progressively over the last few years, about two thirds to three quarters of the library has been gutted of books, they have vanished from the open shelves. Of course all this has been applauded by the usual suspects in the Irish Times and whatever, its an award winning library now, its great, now that they don’t have so many books!
Trying to research with books not on shelves
What they will tell you is that there are a lot more books in stores attached to the library and in the Special Collection section. But in both cases you need to make special arrangements to access any of those books, in the case of the stores they say it will take at least a day and in the Special Collections maybe about a week, and probably you would only be able to see about five books at a time after you make such an appointment.
Hence they claim there is no great inconvenience, you can see the books that way (if they are really still there, of which more anon) but in fact that methodology destroys a lot of historical and other types of research, in practice. To illustrate this consider a hypothetical example, we will say I am trying to do the history of Clonakilty. As part of this I need to examine the British Historical Manuscript Commission books, the HMC. This Commission was set up in the UK in the 19th century to catalogue and publish manuscripts scattered across stately homes in the UK (and to a degree in Ireland) and is a treasure trove of historical data on Clonakilty, you can be sure, and everywhere else. So if it is on the shelves in UCD, which it was until very recently, all you do is go across the hundred or so volumes and flick through each index for a Clonakilty reference, then select out whatever volumes seems to have entries of interest and go through them. Since looking at the indexes won’t take more than a few seconds per book for the experienced researcher, the whole job of looking at these hundred or so volumes might take only a few hours.
Now how do you do that if you have to access each volume separately, by appointment, from the stores or the Special Collections? It could take months to go through 100 volumes at 5 or so volumes at each appointment (with sometimes a week between each appointment)? There is just no comparison between volumes on open storage and those you can only get to by appointment, it is vastly longer to do any research the latter way. Yes some of these volumes are on the net, in places like archive.org, but the emphasis is on some, by no means all, and I will defy you to find the index and the entry in an online volume in the matter of seconds it takes with a book on a shelf.
Destruction of Books
But that's not all, the above assumes that the books are still available. Typically these libraries will continue to catalogue these books, in their online lists, but sometimes when you actually go through the trouble of making that appointment etc, they just say they looked for the book and it isn’t there. Why they aren’t there we can guess from this reference from a few years ago by a member of staff in UCD:
Yes they do throw out or pulp books quite regularly from Irish libraries, but they try and keep the practice as quiet as they can, hence you cannot actually be sure that any of these books removed from the shelves are in any store or special collections, despite what the catalogue says.
Why are they doing this?
Since this change in library practice, of destroying some books and making nearly all of them available only by appointment of some type, is so widespread I think we can say that its a definite policy of the powers that be, so why are they doing this then? A few guesses:
– It obviously puts historical and other research firmly into the digital prison system described elsewhere on this site. Obviously if I have to register for a library card and then need to go through a digital system to register my interest in said book and attach to it my personal details on the library card then we are well within that prison system so described.
– In practice this great inconvenience in doing research only effects independent and poorer scholars. The powers that be, when they go to write books frequently have an army of researchers working for them, sometimes one researcher per chapter I saw for a recent book by a well promoted author, so obviously this new system has advantages in helping to thwart any opposition to the established line in any given area.
– It tends to promote certain books and blanks out others very successfully. Meaning that the few volumes recommended by the academics on the various courses will probably be on the shelves while other books less in favour disappear more from view. When books are on shelves mainly, then you could just trip across a new book in the section you are interested in, but if the only public access you have is a listing on a computer catalogue then its very unlikely you will trip across these out of favour books.
