National Collection of Children's Books

The NCCB project, funded by the Irish Research Council, will examine children’s books collections in five libraries: the Church of Ireland College of Education, the National Library, Pearse Street Library, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, and Trinity College Dublin.

The collections in question include the Kildare Place Society archives and library, as well as a substantial Puffin Story Book collection in CICE; a comprehensive range of texts of Irish interest in the National Library; an extensive children’s book collection, containing texts from the 18th century onwards in Pearse Street Library; the Junior Special Collection, Patricia Lynch and Pádraic Colum Collections in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra; and, more than 10,000 items from the 17th century to the early 20th century in TCD’s Pollard Collection.

The NCCB project has two main aims. Firstly, the creation of a centralised catalogue of children’s books collections in the five aforementioned libraries, allowing users to search for items across the five libraries. Secondly, the project will highlight a significant number of texts of interest from these libraries, while providing further detailed description of and images from these texts. It is hoped that the project will contribute to the continuing development of the strong Irish profile in children’s literature research by providing a centralised online platform that will attract both national and international scholars and encourage new research in the area.

As the research team is led by English Literature scholars and educationalists at the School of English, TCD, and at the Church of Ireland College of Education, the project will focus on literary and educational texts, paying particular attention to texts of Irish interest or with a connection to Ireland, as well as the predominant genres and forms present in the collection, illustration, authors of note, editions of interest, and books explicitly targeting boy or girl readers. Furthermore, while analysis will focus on English-language texts, it is hoped the project will provide future opportunities for Irish language and literature scholars to develop it further.

It is hoped that the NCCB project will be the first step towards a more comprehensive detailing of collections of children’s books in libraries throughout Ireland.