Sir, – Further to Jordan Markey's letter (November 2nd), the National Archives makes its collections available to the public for inspection for personal interest, education or discovery, to demonstrate accountability, and to safeguard the rights of citizens. Our collections are used by a wide variety of researchers, including academics from a range of disciplines, genealogists, legal researchers, local historians and policymakers.
The National Archives, like its sister national cultural institutions, endeavours to deliver a high-quality public service within its available resources. We are open to the public from 9.15am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Readers will be pleased to know that a dedicated duty archivist office in the reading room will be in place this month and provide readers with direct access to an archivist for queries and advice.
We place a limit of one item with a reader at any time to minimise potential damage or misplacing of archives. In some cases archives must be recalled from offsite storage which can cause delays in production. However, we offer an advance ordering service to reduce waiting times.
The National Archives also provides valuable services to government departments in assisting them to prepare and transfer records that are 30 years old for preservation and inspection. This annual practise supports the democratic principles of transparency and accountability and is a core function of the National Archives. We are currently in the planning phase for this year’s transfer and release, and the National Archives will be publishing a selection of digitised versions of records from 1985 in the new year on the nationalarchives.ie website.
The National Archives has for many years utilised digitisation as a means of both preserving and increasing accessibility to its holdings, and has prioritised collections where we can make a complete series available. These include the flagship 1901 and 1911 census website and other collections such as the first World War soldiers’ wills and the very popular Dublin Metropolitan Police “Movement of Extremists” files from 1915 to 1916 that are released on a weekly basis and will conclude in April 2016. We also actively collaborate on initiatives such as the RTÉ-hosted Century Ireland website and the Letters of 1916 project .
We are also aware that within our holdings are foundational series from the Civil War and the establishment of the Irish State, and are actively working on means to digitise and make these available in the coming years. – Yours, etc,
JOHN McDONOUGH,
Director,
National Archives,
Bishop Street, Dublin 8.