National Library Of Ireland Houses A Vast Collection Of Irish-Related Books, and Plans To Expand its Web Archive

From The Irish Times:

With about 10 million objects from nearly 1,000 years of Irish history, archiving the internet isn’t the first thing that jumps to mind about the National Library of Ireland.
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Since 2011, the department has amassed more than 1,000 websites that are either Irish, or of Irish interest, working in partnership with the Internet Memory Foundation in Paris. Staff select those websites for the foundation, to later receive copies back from Paris that are then put on the Library’s website. And even if those source sites become defunct – as many have over the last five years – the Library will always have a permanent record available.
But as the Library’s ultimate goal is to digitise its collection – much of which is currently on microfilm – could it become a victim of its success, whereby would-be visitors go online instead “That’s a really big question that libraries, galleries and museums are all facing at the moment,” says library director Sandra Collins. “But, no, we are not concerned, as we saw earlier this year how we had digitised all our 1916 collections and put them online but we’ve so far seen more visitors than ever coming through the door. For many people, their first port of call is online, so if you don’t have a presence there people cut you out of the equation.”

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