The Jackie Clarke Collection and Library in Ballina has seen a steady increase in the numbers of visitors coming through its doors over the past number of years, but further investment and planning is needed to ensure the library is able to reach its full potential, it was said this week.
The collection has been described as the most important private collection of Irish history material in public hands, comprising more than 100,000 items spanning 400 years. It includes artefacts associated with Theobald Wolfe Tone; letters from Michael Collins, Douglas Hyde, Michael Davitt; and O’Donovan Rossa. It also contains rare books, an original 1916 Proclamation, posters, political cartoons, pamphlets, handbills, works by Sir John Lavery, maps, hunger strike material, and personal items from leaders of the 1916 Rising.
The manager of the library Edel Golden gave the members of the Ballina Municipal District an update on the library at their July meeting this week. Outlining the positive news she told the meeting that in 2014, 15,000 people had gone through the doors of the library, this increased to 23,000 last year, and from January until July 15 this year 18,203 had visited the library, with the 1916 Commemorations playing a large part in that increase.
However for the collection and the library to continue to grow, she outlined a number of key things that need to be done. She told the meeting: "In relation to the repository, we have a basic word document cataloguing the entire collection. Going forward we need a proper digital catalogue of the collection if we are going to be able to link up with universities and scholars who want to study what is in the collection. A permanent staff member, who is a repository manager would be needed." She outlined that working in conjunction with the library service in Mayo she is looking at a number of different options that could be used to create the digital catalogue, if the one the library service uses is not compatible with what they want to achieve, it could cost between €5,000 and €8,000 for the software to do the cataloguing.
The members of Ballina Municipal District agreed that a targeted time framed plan should be looked at for the library and collection, where there could be achievable goals and measurements, as they all concurred that the collection was of immense importance to the town and the area, and that all that could be done to ensure it prospered and succeeded, be done by the council.
