Institutional Libraries and Book Collecting Practices in Ireland, 1960–2000

The National Library of Ireland (NLI) became a legal deposit library in 1927, joining Trinity College which had been, since 1801, subject to British legal-deposit legislation. These two institutions were to form the backbone of the country’s large-scale collection and preservation of written heritage during the twentieth century. In augmenting their collections during this time, they faced similar challenges of space and finance, while also benefitting from the dispersal of major private libraries of big houses in the post-civil war era. This article examines the acquisitions policies of these two libraries in the context of broader trends in the rare book trade. It considers the shifting sands of public and university budgets for library-building during the latter half of the twentieth century and examines where books and archives of Irish interest were bought and sold. In particular, it addresses the impact of the growth of US universities and specialist libraries on the market for Irish material from the 1960s onwards. Responding to this increased competition, the Irish institutions managed their collections and acquisitions in new ways, often at increased cost and using selective buying practices. Drawing on catalogues of sales, auctions and library records, this article offers a broad appreciation of the literary-institutional landscape in a period of vast change in Ireland.