Old Library Redevelopment Project

The Old Library’s precious collections, spanning millennia, have been in our care for over 400 years. The Library now faces conservation challenges with pollution and dust accumulation taking their toll, and an urgent need to improve environmental controls.

A library assistant removes a book from a shelf in the Long Room

Safeguarding the Old Library

The Old Library Redevelopment Project draws on the best 21st century design and technology to safeguard the 18th century building and conserve its precious collections for future generations. As part of this landmark conservation project, 200,000 books have been removed from the Long Room library chamber.

One by one, each book has been cleaned with a specialised vacuum, measured, electronically tagged and linked to a catalogue record, before being safely relocated to a climate-controlled storage facility.

Learn about the delicate process behind removing the books.

Each book is carefully removed

A specialised vacuum is used to clean centuries of dust

Each book is measured

An RFID tag is added

The books are systematically boxed

Watch our library assistants removing books from the Long Room bays.

person adding books to an old shelf carefully

Bay B

Bay C

person placing old books on a library cart

Bay D

person removing an old book from a shelf

Bay E

Bay F

Meet the team behind the
Old Library Redevelopment Project

Helen Shenton,
Librarian and College Archivist

The Old Library Redevelopment Project draws on the best 21st-century design and technology to safeguard the Old Library building and conserve its precious collections for future generations. Learn more from Helen Shenton, Librarian and College Archivist at Trinity College Dublin.

Susie Bioletti,
Head of Conservation and Preservation

A once in a lifetime event is currently taking place it the Old Library. Susie Bioletti, Head of Conservation and Preservation at Trinity, explains more.

Dr Christoph Schmidt-Supprian,
Head of Content Management and Open Scholarship

Learn about the monumental digital cataloguing project that is underway at the Old Library, with Head of Content Management and Open Scholarship Dr Christoph Schmidt-Supprian.

woman with red jumper in trinity long room

Laura Shanahan,
Head of Research Collections

A new state-of-the-art Research Collections Study Centre will transform the Old Library’s world-class collections. Learn more with Laura Shanahan, Head of Research Collections at Trinity.