Virtual Trinity Library
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Virtual Trinity Library is opening up the unique and distinct collections of the Library of Trinity College Dublin, catalysing research and safeguarding the iconic treasures of the Library of Trinity College Dublin for generations to come. This ambitious, multi-year initiative is to catalogue, conserve, digitise and research these unique collections of national importance making them accessible to a global audience, from schoolchildren to scholars.
Virtual Trinity Library is part of an international landscape of institutions that are enabling access to patrimony and cultural heritage. Universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, as well as national libraries, museums, archives, and galleries have similar initiatives to share national memory, enrich society and facilitate international links between collections and people. By additionally contributing to such international initiatives as Europeana, the vision is to create new digital research entities on a previously unimaginable scale, on which new types of scholarship will be possible. The importance of Virtual Trinity Library for teaching, learning and research is highlighted by the current pandemic, which has accelerated the digital transformation of the University and the Library.
Virtual Trinity Library will be accessible to all through its Digital Collections repository.
The ambitious digitisation project is centred on the Library of Trinity College's most prized collections across nine representative categories. The nine themes are:
- Dublin for Children's Literature: Trinity's Collections of Children's Literature
- Europe's Diverse Heritage: From Ussher's Library to the Fagel Library
- Global Culture: Papyrus and Objects
- Ireland's Creative Legacy: Performance, Creative Arts and Architecture Archives
- Ireland's Experiments and Great Discoveries: Mathematical, Scientific and Map Collections
- Ireland's Literary Heritage: Literary Archives
- Ireland's Religious and Political Evolution: Religious, Legal, Political and Military Collections
- Medieval Manuscript Cultures
- Trinity's Scholarly Contribution to the World: Trinity Icons
Virtual Trinity Library is a strategic flagship project, forming part o f the University's philanthropic campaign, Inspiring Generations and is complementary to the Old Library Redevelopment Project which addresses the physical rejuvenation of the Library,
Helen Shenton
Librarian & College Archivist
- to conserve and protect the Library's most precious items
- make collections easily accessible to a global audience, from school children to scholars
- use new technologies to greatly expand research potential
- place the Library of Trinity College in a virtual network with the other great libraries
Image of Oscar Wilde. Forget-me-not waltzes taken from a fully digitised object.
An 'In Conversation' with President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Vartan Gregorian with the Librarian & College Archivist, Helen Shenton, discussing 'Creating a Virtual World Library for our Cultural Heritage' on the occasion of the launch of Virtual Trinity Library.