Kieran Hoare, James Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland
Archivist in the James Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland, Galway
A typical day in the James Hardiman Library archives service begins at 8.45 with a cup of coffee to wake me up in the canteen, this is usually where the first queries of the day arrive as some of the more diligent researchers are already having coffee, and take the opportunity to ask a few questions. There are over three hundred collections covering all aspects of academic life in the College, as well as areas such as theatre collections, Gaelic language and literature, landed estate collections, political collections and personal papers, covering life in Galway from the fifteenth century on. As the primary function of the archives is to support the research needs of the university we often work with the academics in acquiring material, and at least some part of the week is spent in an attic or a basement transferring material into the archives. Other researchers come from nearby educational institutions, local historians and genealogists. As we share the reading space with special collections, many of the printed government sources are close to hand for the researchers, and the Library as a whole is pushing hard towards an integrated research service, while at the same time meeting the very different access and preservation needs of material. Since the archives service was established in 1998 many meeting hours have been clocked up explaining what an archives service does to both library and academic staff. E-mails also form a part of the daily routine, with queries about graduates, Galway history and genealogy coming from many far-flung corners of the globe. Today's batch includes priest-hunting in eighteenth century Connacht, a right-of-way case over land formerly owned by the Galway, Oughterard and Clifden Tramway and Light Railway Company, and a request to transcribe some material from the State Papers in the PRO in Kew on Grace O'Malley, a sixteenth century pirate. Another role played by the archives service here is pointing researchers to other archives, usually in Dublin or London, where collections of interest to their research are stored.
Generally speaking, the morning is for meetings, accessions, queries and so on, the afternoon is usually for listing. One of the advantages to working in a university like NUI Galway is that there is access to a lot of technical expertise. One digitization project we are working on with An Teanglann (the university's audio-visual service) relates to Irish language material gathered from the Eigse festival of story-telling from the 1950s on. Because of the university's unique position on the west coast and commitment to the use of Irish, many of the collections relate to writers and folklore gathering, and are in demand with researchers. These items range in date from the sixteenth century on to the present, and cover a variety of paper based, photographic, and audio-visual formats. It can be something of a challenge to preserve all of these, but an interesting one nonetheless.
It's not all work however, no wait … actually it is! Well, the gym, soccer, hurling (it's a game, nothing to do with throwing up on people) and walking are welcome distractions on occasion, not to mention the pubs and clubs. Work officially ends at 5.15, but can continue on occasionally, but its good fun and I wouldn't do anything else!
Last modified 12/08/2004
