In 2008 Limerick City Archives became the first local authority archives in Ireland to create a virtual archive and make some of its key collections available freely over the internet. To date over 70,000 images have been digitised covering both local authority and private collections which are free of copyright.  This represents approximately 22% of the total listed collections in Limerick City Archives.

Digitisation is both an excellent preservation and access strategy for Limerick City Archives as it enables broad access to the archives beyond the constraints of a physical reading room where access is limited to a single user within the service’s opening hours. It also allows the original documents to rest in deep storage and avoids the damage and wear and tear involved in transporting them to a reading room. It also reduces the number of staff required to maintain a reasonable level of access to archives and reduces manual handling.

The Collections

It was decided to digitise four Limerick City Council collections and five collections representing the commercial and main institutions of Limerick City. It was envisioned that a member of the public with broadband access would be able to click on Limerick City Council’s website to access Limerick City Archives web page. Material which had already been microfilmed and converted to digital format was also included in the project.

In phase one the City Council Minute Books from 1959-1973 were scanned in colour and OCR enabled.  The earlier volumes form 1841-1959 had been microfilmed and copied to PDF and these were all included to make a complete run of City Council Minute books available from 1841-1973 with OCR searching available on all typescript material (from 1922). 

The second phase digitised the Limerick Board of Guardian collections, one of the most popular collections in the archives from 1842-1870.   In 2009 it is planned to scan more of this collection.

The third phase of the project involved the digitisation of the older City Council material. The Freemen of Limerick material (1719-1890) which includes

Applications for Freemen Status under the Court of Claims (1833-1905), Corporation Administration material which includes an Oath

Book, a Minute Book and Financial Matters (1769-1890) a Tholsel Court volume (1773-1795) which record details of Tholsel Court business, including details of plaintiffs and defendants and a volume from Limerick Court of Conscience (1895-1917). 

This phase also included the digitisation of the records of the Commissioners for the Improvement of St. Michael’s Parish, which operated as a separate administration from the Corporation from 1807 managing the administration of the (then) mainly new Georgian part of Limerick.  In these years Limerick Corporation was considered to be highly corrupt and it was only under a reformed Corporation that the Commissioners were dissolved and absorbed into the Corporation in 1853.  This collection includes Minute books, Rate Books and Night Watch report books for this part of Limerick City. Also digitised were four private paper collections- The Limerick Chamber of Commerce collection (1807-1946), The Bedford Row Lying in Hospital,( 1868-1971), the Maurice Lenihan papers (1759-1875) and a collections of sales auctions and rentals relating to Limerick City and outlying areas (1808-1923).

The final phase provided for the digitisation of the Limerick House of Industry register, a register of inmates  committed to the House of Industry and a collection of Rateble Valuation books. This phase will go on line shortly.

The project has been a great success and in 2009 it is planned to scan a further 25% of records, meaning that approximately 45% of the archives listed holdings will be available on line.

The digitisation project could only happen on the back of a successful cataloguing project.  Limerick Archives collections had been in complete disarray and it was necessary to process everything from scratch.  The process began in 2004 and great credit is due to Limerick Civic Trust and the archive assistants who were trained under that project and to Ellen Murphy, the Archivist who ran the project while I was on maternity leave in 2006 and worked with me to complete the project in early 2008. I was also fortunate to have the advice and enthusiasm of the Limerick City Council IT department. 

I would be delighted to receive feed back so go online, download djvu and browse. Contact me.

Jacqui Hayes, 
Limerick City Archivist