Local Studies Centre: Donations - How you can help
Clare County
Library's Local Studies Centre is a reference library and research centre
dedicated to the collection of material on any aspect of County Clare,
and there is strong usage of the centre by researchers, students, tourists,
and the general public.
Each year the centre receives queries on how funds can be donated or given to the centre to enhance services there or to contribute in some meaningful way to the work of the centre. Some of these requests have come from on-line queries or directly in person at the centre.
Clare Local Studies Centre now formally seeks donations of funds to develop its services in ways which would not normally be possible within its existing resources. All monies received will be receipted, and all donations acknowledged unless the donor wishes otherwise. All donations under this process will be restricted to the use of the centre. Donations may be small, medium or major and the centre will utilise these donations in a number of ways:
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Small donations - ‘Adopt
a Book’ or ‘Sponsor a Book’
Small donations are more than welcome and will be used to ‘Adopt
a Book’ or ‘Sponsor a Book’ and fill immediate gaps
in our collection. A recent example is the current edition of “The
Irish Catholic Directory” 2014, our first edition in ten years,
which was donated to the library. This sponsored book is a valuable addition
to this series, the earliest edition of which we have is 1850.
Medium sized donations -
'Desirable Holdings'
These are areas of stock that the county library, given the resources,
wishes to build up. As of the present, they are outside our means. They
include works dealing with the former Australian colonies in the nineteenth
century, and Irish connections with those colonies. Clare is one of the
Irish counties which contributed most to the development of Australia
and this should be reflected in the breadth of our reference holdings
in the centre. Similarly, there are standard works on the Irish in different
American States (Wisconsin, Illinois etc.) which we do not have. Building
up good Australian, American and Canadian works of reference relating
to Irish immigration is a priority. Many Clare people went to other places
such as South Africa and Argentina and additional resources at our disposal
would assist in adding valuable holdings pertaining to those countries
as well. Individual general areas of stock, such as church history and
military affairs, both pivotal to the history of the nineteenth century,
are very desirable as well. Also, we intend to gradually add individual
family histories to our collection. Often privately printed, these valuable
works, when they do appear on the antiquarian market, are expensive.
Major donations - 'Large
projects'
Major donations allow for the development of large projects which entail
a significant bequest or donation / donations. Priorities here include
the cost of digitising our microfilm collection of newspapers, starting
with “The Clare Journal”. Also, copies of the “Clare
Champion” from the 1940s, held in hard-copy, need to be removed
as they are becoming brittle and torn. In the interests of preserving
these hard copies for posterity, we need to replace our copies of the
‘Champion’ from the 1940s and the 1950s with microfilm copies.
Donations will be used to purchase these microfilms. Another category
is other newspaper titles on microfilm. This is particularly desirable
as the centre recently purchased a new microfilm machine; desirable purchases
include runs of appropriate newspapers to amplify our holdings eg: The
“Limerick Chronicle” 1783 – 1827, given its dates, is
most desirable – this title was acquired by the National Library
of Ireland in 2008, and the “Dublin Evening Mail”, 1823 –
1962, for its earlier decades, would be useful too. The ‘Evening
Mail’ has much Munster news and good reports of court cases and
the various local petty sessions, as well as good biographical notices.
All donations will help preserve and share
our collections.
We are unable to accept donations in any denomination except Euro. Donations
in Cash, Euro Cheques or Euro Bankdrafts will be gratefully accepted on-site
at -
Clare County Library, Local Studies Centre, Mill Rd, Ennis, County Clare,
Ireland.
The Clare library service is a department of Clare County Council.
Click
here for the Donations Form
