The National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL)
The National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) was formally established in 1997 with the aim of documenting all aspects of 20th century and contemporary Irish art and design and providing public access to a national research resource. NIVAL is a partnership initiative between NCAD and the Arts Council. It has also received funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Heritage Council.
The Library is a unique research facility wherein every aspect of contemporary Irish visual culture has been documented. The archive materials amassed over the last thirty years are unavailable elsewhere.
Project Description
The Visual Research and Digital Archiving Project of the HSIS/DHO initiative is designed to contribute to the inter-institutional programmes for graduate enhancement and to diversify the research skill-set of doctoral researchers. The National Irish Visual Arts Library will engage network partners to develop and deliver workshops in the use and management of visual materials in qualitative research projects; expand existing inter-institutional post-graduate seminars and research training modules to be open to all HSIS partners; and scope the collections of NIVAL with a view to identifying potential research strands and the development of additional online resources in accordance with nationally agreed protocols for the DHO.
The collections of the National Irish Visual Arts Library contain documentary evidence of all aspects of Irish visual culture. The Visual Research and Digital Archiving Project will make this material more readily accessible to researchers across the humanities by:
- Promoting the research competencies necessary to utilise the material fully;
- Promoting access to the holdings by extending existing initiatives to make these available online;
- Providing a clear map of the research potential of these holdings,
which have a bearing not only on visual culture but also in respect of business history; the development of the cultural industries; changing patterns of national cultural policy; and the development of modern Irish cultural identity in popular and elite cultural practices.