As if I wasn’t overwhelmed enough by just being in Ireland, entering the most beautiful library I have ever been in put me over the top. I love this place. If I didn’t have to find food eventually, I might never leave. Well, not for a long time anyway.

 

Doesn’t the beauty of this place say something about the value the Irish place on learning and preserving knowledge and history?

 

Just look at this door!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First stop: lockers. Everything except your work materials goes in here. I had no problem fitting my wheeled work bag into the larger lockers. You can set your own combination, so there are no keys to worry about. With the glass doors, you don’t even need to remember your locker number. Wish they had these at the repositories I visit in the U.S.! Next to these lockers is a cafeteria. I never actually ate at this cafeteria, or at anyplace else for lunch for that matter. I mean, who has time to eat lunch when there are all these documents to be discovered? I figured that I could always eat lunch next week.

 

After passing through the metal detectors (a sad necessity everywhere), and climbing the stairs, the room on the left has a genealogist on duty, basic genealogical references, and a couple of rows of computers. If you are new to Irish research, or need some pointers, this will be your first stop. Across the hall to the right of the stairs is the room that contains the parish records microfilms and microfilm readers.

 

Continuing up the stairs you’ll come to the main reading room.

 

Yes, please do stop, look up, and allow it to take your breath away. It is a research cathedral.

The first task on the agenda is to obtain a reader’s card. You can do this in the small room on the right. I’m the proud owner of several library cards, but this one is now my favorite. Here’s a great tip I learned from Donna Moughty. Wear a badge holder from a genealogy conference. You aren’t allowed to carry a purse, so it’s the perfect place to tuck your reader’s card and several two-Euro coins for copying.

 

On the left in the reading room are several computers where you can submit a readers ticket to obtain microfilm or manuscripts. You can also submit your reader’s ticket from your computer in your hotel room the previous evening, and find your materials waiting for you when you arrive in the morning. Where has this system been all my research life? If you requested an item like newspaper microfilm, it will arrive at the main desk in this room. There is a microfilm reading room at the opposite end of this room. If you want to print, you’ll need to bring the film to the room where you obtained your reader’s card and place on a reader-printer in that room. The printers use copy cards which you can buy in either one or two Euro denominations. Your only option is to print on 11×16 paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you requested manuscript material, it will arrive in the manuscript reading room which is down the street a short ways at the other end of the block. They’ll allow you to take one folder or item at a time. Non-flash photographs are allowed. I spent many hours here looking at documents created by my ancestor’s landlord.

 

OK, now tell the truth. Where else but on my blog are you going to see what the bathrooms at the National Library of Ireland looks like?! I took this so you could see that even the bathrooms are lovely here. Now you can fantasize about hiding in a stall at closing time so you can spend the night here. Of course, I would never imagine such a thing. Right.

If you could spend a day (or all night!) here, what is the first thing you’d want to find?