I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment, namely, "The fact that the map collections of the National Library are not being made available to members of the public and particularly to scholars." I am glad that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education has been able to come into the House to reply to the points that I will make.
The first point I should like to make is that this is not something which happened in the last week, or last month, or last six months. It is something that happened in January, 1973. Therefore, it is over a year since the maps were withdrawn from availability either to the public or to scholars. I should like to begin by referring to a letter which was circulated to each Member of the Oireachtas by the joint staffs of the Geography Departments of University College and my college, Trinity College. This is a good example of university co-operation by joining together to draft the letter. I propose, with your indulgence, to read the terms of the letter on to the record, because it sets out part of the grievance which was felt by these lecturers and part of the serious concern which must be felt by anybody who values learning and values scholarship and values interest in a particular area of scholarship relating to Irish life. The letter which is dated November, 1973 is as follows:
We are writing to draw your attention to the disgraceful state of affairs that exists with regard to the map collections of the National Library of Ireland.
These maps are an essential part of the country's information services and few of them are available in any other Irish library. They are also of the utmost importance to geographical and historical scholarship, contributing directly and indirectly each year to the education of hundreds of university and other students and thousands of school pupils.
Since last January almost all the maps in this great national collection have been totally inaccessible to the public. The reason given by the library authorities for their withdrawal is lack of space, a lack which became critical (the authorities say) when it was noticed that the maps were vulnerable to fire in those parts of the Library where they had been kept for the past sixteen years.
Fortunately, space was found for the maps in the University College building in Earlsfort Terrace. When their new location became known many people assumed that staff would be provided to make the collections available to the public until the Library's permanent accommodation had been enlarged. This has not happened, and there has been no sign that it is going to happen.
It is also widely assumed that room will eventually be found for the maps in an extension to the Library now being built in Kildare Street. According to other sources, however, the whole of this new accommodation has already been earmarked for a different purpose. No official announcement has been made one way or the other on this important point.
There is obviously a pressing need for adequate permanent accommodation to be provided for these maps as soon as possible. It is equally important that some temporary arrangement should be introduced without delay to make the maps available to students in their present repository. Further prolongation of the present sorry state of affairs will merely add to Ireland's reputation as a country incapable of looking after the records of either its past or its present.
Efforts to bring these facts home to the Minister for Education have met with no response beyond a bare acknowledgement. As professors and lecturers in the departments of geography at Trinity College and University College, Dublin, we ask for your active support in these efforts.
There follow the signatures of the members of staff of the Geography Departments of the two colleges.
This is a situation, indeed I would maintain a scandal, which has been the position for over a year and on which there is no terminal date. There is no indication of how long this will be the position. In order to verify just how scandalous the position is I made inquiries in the Department of Geography in Trinity College as to the implication within the college itself. I was informed that there are five students at the moment engaged in dissertations on historical geography who are substantially handicapped in their work this year. There are also research projects which are severely handicapped by the unavailability of these maps. I gather that the position varies from inconvenience to one of a total block on this form of scholarship. Some of these maps are available less conveniently elsewhere, either in the Ordnance Survey authority or in some other venues. Unfortunately the more important of these maps are not necessarily available elsewhere. The National Library have a unique collection. This collection is not now available at all to the public or to scholars.
One ironic factor is that the National Library has a very good catalogue of maps. This has been compiled over the years and it is something of which the library and its staff can be justly proud. But there is no good in having a good map catalogue if the maps themselves are not available. When it was decided in January, 1973, to have the maps transferred to Earlsfort Terrace various questions arose. First of all, it is hard to justify the removal of an entire collection of one type of learning. If there was a problem of space, then surely the less important maps and the less important other items — for instance, books or something else — could have been removed from the National Library but not an entire class of learning.
Secondly, if some of the maps were a fire risk those particular maps could have been either removed to a different part, where they would still be accessible but no longer a fire risk, instead of having all maps from different parts of the library swept away in one stroke.
Thirdly, if some of the maps were a theft risk and were in danger of being stolen, those particular maps could have been better protected. Also a proper determination could have been made that certain important maps, from the point of view of their significance to scholarship and from the point of view of their being solely available in the National Library would at all times be available. None of these factors seems to have been considered when the maps were being removed.
I would maintain that there was a failure in the duty owed to the public on three counts: first of all, the library gave no warning of their intention to remove this collection in January, 1973; no sufficient advance warning to those involved in research projects, to those compiling world atlases, in which we must play our part as a country by itemising the maps which are available; no advance warning to anybody who was planning a project and wanted to use these maps. Foreign students may well have come to Ireland on the understanding they could pursue a course of studies which the unavailability of the collection would prevent. That is the first point: no warning was given of the removal.
Secondly, no adequate explanation was offered by the library at the time to explain their actions; no adequate explanation has been given, despite constant requests, made both to the library and to the Department of Education. There has been a lack of willingness to answer the anxious requests of the Geography Society, of individual scholars, of those who have written letters over the last few months in The Irish Times and other newspapers. That is the second point: that no adequate explanation has been offered.
Thirdly, so far, despite the 13 months which have elapsed, no announcement of specific arrangements has been made to make the maps available in their temporary place. At present, although the maps are physically contained in part of Earlsfort Terrace, there is no provision and apparently no intention to make provision that there would be even a limited access to these maps. One possibility would be that either part-time staff be recruited for the purpose, or that the staff of the library be available at certain times in Earlsfort Terrace to allow properly vouched students, scholars, lecturers and others with a particular interest to see the materials. This would seem to me to be the bare minimum, that bona fide persons who could establish that they had a genuine necessity in their projects or a genuine interest in seeing the particular maps, for the purpose of pursuing their studies, would be allowed to do so at specific times under the supervision of a member of the staff of the library. This has not been possible to date.
Apart from this very minimal improvement of the temporary situation, I think it is necessary that the Government make it very clear what the long-term solution will be. What one would hope to see would be that the Government would undertake that the library would provide a properly equipped map-room — not one shared with other items, such as newspapers and so on — containing tables of a sufficient size to look at these very large bound volumes of maps; that there would be a specialist member of the staff who would be qualified to assist students and scholars in their researches; that there would be open access to maps which are in regular demand, and that all other maps would be available within about an hour, on request; and that the map catalogue would be put to full use in this way.
It is interesting that before 1900 there was a map-room, as such, in the library. It is a sad fact that this is no longer so. In correspondence around that period, where the library were applying for free copies of ordnance survey maps, they referred to their map-room and to the fact that the maps would be kept there. I think we have gone backwards in that we have not had for a very long time a specific map-room, as such; and now we have an excellent catalogue but total inaccessibility of the maps themselves.
Another factor which must not go by default in debating this matter is the sensibilities of the persons concerned: the feelings now of the Geography Society of Ireland, of lecturers in the subject and of students in geography. Their interest is being ignored. We talk about the rights of the minority: the geography departments in the two colleges and those with interests in this specific area know that they are a minority, they know that theirs is a specialised subject. They rightly feel that it is important. We ought to make it clear that any contribution to learning — particularly a contribution which relates very much to Irish life, to our tradition, to our history, to our historical geography — is important. Those involved in it should be encouraged in their studies, should be given a sense that we do appreciate the work that they are doing; that they have the encouragement of our society, particularly of our Government, and of our institutions such as the National Library. They should not be prevented and handicapped; they should be encouraged and facilitated. If we try to give ourselves the reputation of being a country that is concerned with learning, and if we want to get back again the reputation of being an island of saints and scholars, we must be prepared to promote and help much more conscientiously those involved in study and research, and interested members of the public who want to further their knowledge in this particular area.
That, then, is the case I want to make about the map collections. The specific questions that I should like the Parliamentary Secretary to answer are; firstly, is there any definite date which will end this position of inaccessability of the maps stored away in Earlsfort Terrace? Secondly, is there the intention to make a temporary improvement of the situation, even of a less satisfactory nature, by which in supervised conditions, either in Earlsfort Terrace or elsewhere, it will be possible for bona fide students, scholars, researchers, lecturers, who want to use these maps, to avail of them? Thirdly, is there a long-term policy to provide proper accommodation and facilities for these maps? Specifically on that point, is it the intention of the Government to have part of the space in the building in Kildare Street — the Setanta Building — made available for this purpose, or has it, in fact, as those in the geography departments suspect, been entirely allocated for other purposes? Are they, once again, the poor relation? I would welcome specific answers to these specific questions. I would also welcome some explanation or some indication from the Parliamentary Secretary of how this deplorable state of affairs could have been brought about in the first place and in such an abrupt manner, and could have been allowed to continue over 13 months to the detriment of the pursuit of studies in historical geography?
