Organization Name: National Library of Ireland
Description of what was digitized: This project includes over 20,000 glass plate negatives which were digitized from the following collections currently existing at the National Library of Ireland: Poole Whole plate, Independent H, Lawrence Royal and part of the Lawrence Cabinet collection.
The Poole collection comprises 5,119 glass plate negatives and was created by the family firm of A.H. Poole in Waterford between 1884-1954. The majority of images in the collection are studio portraits but the Poole Whole Plate subset which consists of 5,119 images, reflects the diversity of the collection with studio portraits, social and political events and also images of architecture and industry in the south east of Ireland.
The Independent Newspaper collection of some 3,000 images, is made up of glass plates, plastic negatives and a small number of prints. The Independent H collection is a subset of the collection and contains 3,250 glass plates negatives dating from 1912-1936. It provides a record of many aspects of 20th century Irish life, and is particularly strong in the coverage of politics and sport in Ireland.
The Lawrence Collection consists of 12,824 glass plate negatives from 1870-1914. The images were produced commercially and capture topographical scenes of that period throughout Ireland. The entire Lawrence Royal collection (10,784 plates) and part of the Lawrence Cabinet collection (2,040 plates) are available here to view online.
All these images are accessible here at a low resolution with basic information, including title, date and location where available.
Audience of the Project: As one of the roles of national libraries is to strive principally to collect and preserve the nation's literature, their role also includes to promote the national culture and heritage to all the peoples they serve. Although it is not stated, this project is not intended for a specific group of users, instead for those who are interested in learning about the historical aspect of Ireland through its pictures.
Type of project background information available on this site: The "About" section of this project explains that in 2007 the National Library undertook a major enterprise to digitize its collections of glass plate negatives. No information is provided about funding and/or how long this project took place as well as who was involved in developing it.
How the Digital assets presented? The National Library of Ireland's Digital Photographs project was developed using the CONTENTdm platform. The functionality commonly offered by this software is found as part of this project; additionally, proper links to the Copyright office of the NLI as well as contact information to the reference desk was provided to request permission to reproduce material included in this project. The landing page provides the user with the option to provide an open ended search or to directly browse each one of the collections of this project.
What metadata is present: The metadata of the digitized photographs contain basic information, including an identifier number, title, creator, date, source, coverage, rights and collection name. The National Library, when describing the project, commented that the information accompanying a number of the images has not yet been enhanced that in practice means that some captions, which were transferred directly from original indexes/ lists, are very brief and sometimes inaccurate. My searches confirmed that is the case with many items in the collection. After having performed a search and an item selected, the images are displayed at full size. There is not an option to zoom in or out, or have them displayed outside the platform.
What additional information is presented and is it easy to use? The collection includes the necessary information for anyone to understand what it is about. Additional information about its funding, its timeline as well as plans for its future would have been neat to have included. Instead an open ended comment that the National Library is going to continue working on implementing future collections is posted.
As far as the implementation of CONTENTdm, it was done nicely and its customization follows the palette of colours which are standard to the web page of the National Library of Ireland. I found pleasing the fact that copies of the any of the items showcased in the Digital Photographs could be ordered directly from the library, and that patrons could use their own digital cameras to photograph material from the Library's collections (printed and manuscript).
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