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September 2006 Edition |
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New Purpose-Built Building for Cork City and County Archives |
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The
new Cork City & County Archives Service building at Great
William O’Brien Street, Blackpool, Cork was officially opened
by the Lord Mayor Cllr Deirdre Clune in June.
The service has been in operation in Cork for thirty-five years, and has amassed a very |
| rich and extensive set of archives relating to Cork from both public and private sources, in some cases going back over 300 years. The archive was based at Christ Church, South Main Street, Cork for over twenty years, and this building enabled the service to store a large volume of archives that might otherwise have been lost. The old building dates from 1722 and was unsuitable for the long term preservation of archives. The need for a new building was identified over ten years ago and funding was finally made available in 2004 for the construction of a new purpose built building. | |
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The
new archives building is a 10,500 square feet facility designed
by the Cork City Architects Department, which meets the BS5454
standard for keeping archives and making them available under
the proper conditions.
The repository consists of four air conditioned strong rooms totaling 6,400 square feet and containing about 800 |
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bays of shelving and thirty-two map cabinets. The strong rooms are kept at the appropriate archival humidity and temperature levels. The building is designed to allow for the future modular expansion of the repository area. The spacious reading room can cater for up to fifteen researchers including microfilm and internet access. There is also a dedicated exhibition space for exhibitions and lectures and other educational or cultural activities. A loading bay, archives processing room and administrative offices are provided to allow staff to undertake the ‘background work’ that enables archives to be properly preserved and made accessible to the public. The new Cork City & County Archive building was funded by Cork City Council, and is a major investment in the cultural infrastructure of Cork. It is also a boost to the local government archives sector in Ireland. Brian
McGee |
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