Press Releases
University of Ulster gives new home to diocesan library collection
UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER GIVES NEW HOME TO DIOCESAN LIBRARY COLLECTION
The University of Ulster at Magee will join with the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe to provide a new home for the historic Diocesan Library Collection, dating back to the 15th century.
A Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between UU Vice Chancellor Gerry McKenna and Bishop Ken Good, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, this evening when the collection will be officially handed over.
A guest lecture by Caroline Bendix, Library Conservator and Nicholas Pickwoad, Book Conservator, entitled A Sleeping Beauty among Irish Libraries will also take place to mark the occasion.
Professor McKenna said: ?The 7,000 volume Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library is a unique collection, including specialist material on theology, both Anglican and non-Anglican; the classics; canon and secular law; travel and geography. It has an historic lineage, dating back over three and a half centuries, during which time it has subsumed a number of rare personal libraries and other collections. Its provenances make it an irreplaceable resource.
?Our own record in preserving rare book collections is established. Best known of these are the Henry Davis Collection at Coleraine and the existing Rare Books Collection here at the Magee campus, which itself will complement the Diocesan Library. Not surprisingly. These works already provide valuable source material for scholars and other users from throughout the world, further establishing the University?s place in a community of learning that transcends borders of geography or the mind.?
Bishop Good warmly welcomed this development and added: ?This remarkable library is a unique intellectual resource, and I am delighted that its conservation and accessibility for future generations is now assured by the generous co-operation of the University of Ulster.
?I wish to pay tribute to the University, to Caroline Bendix and to Nicholas Pickwoad for the professionalism and expertise with which they have helped develop the project to this point. The purpose-built facility in which the library is now stored and the conservation measures which we hope will be forthcoming, as resources become available, will ensure the preservation of this remarkable collection for the foreseeable future.?
The Guest Lecture will take place on Wednesday, 18th February, Magee Campus at 7pm
Further information from:
Trina Porter
Press Officer
University of Ulster
Tel: (028) 9036 8390