NORTHERN IRELAND PUBLICATIONS RESOURCE

BACKGROUND

Northern Ireland has no National Library so no local institution is legally responsible for collecting all material published. Until recently there has been no reliable way of finding out what is being published in Northern Ireland, who is collecting it, and where it is held.

With funding from the British Library, the Library and Information Services Council for Northern Ireland set out to redress the situation and officially launched the Northern Ireland Publications Resource (NIPR) in October 2000. After a successful initial two year pilot scheme, the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure provides further funding for the administration of the scheme.

WHAT IS THE NIPR?

All books, journals, pamphlets and reports published in Northern Ireland since 2000 are now systematically collected, catalogued and preserved in the Northern Ireland Publications Resource. Bibliographic information about the collection is available in the online book catalogue at www.nibooks.org. Belfast Central Library and the Linen Hall Library are the two lead partners in NIPR and dedicated repositories have been set up within these institutions to house the collection.

ACCESSING THE COLLECTION

Access to the NIPR Collection is initially through its web-based catalogue at www.nibooks.org. You may consult material in the NIPR collection personally by asking at the counter in either the Linen Hall Library or Belfast Central Library (depending on location given in the catalogue). If you cannot visit the NIPR repository in person, you can request NIPR material through Inter Library Loan at any public library in Northern Ireland.

VOLUNTARY DONATIONS IMPORTANT!

The scheme depends on voluntary donations of material by local publishers. Two copies of every item published in Northern Ireland are requested for the repository in Belfast to ensure that one copy is preserved for posterity and another is available for inter-library loan within Northern Ireland.

A local publication is defined as anything published in Northern Ireland for public dissemination, regardless of subject or publisher. Ephemera are excluded unless they are of perceived future significance

If you would like to know more please contact Monica McErlane at info@nibooks.org T: 028 9032 1707.