As UCD’s new Director of Cultural Heritage, Katherine is leading the development of the campus’s first open access Cultural Heritage Centre. This major project brings cultural treasures from UCD Library together in one engaging space, where the university community and wider public can enjoy world-class collections from UCD Archives, the National Folklore Collection, and Special Collections as never before. With plans for interactive exhibition and interpretation spaces, a reading room and dedicated space for teaching and learning, the Centre will be a boon for researchers, illuminating our globally significant archives and underscoring the wealth of research being carried out here.

Katherine, tell us a bit about yourself and the work you have done in the past.

I have been working in cultural heritage for 20 years and have a particular interest in the intersection of heritage collections with research and public engagement. In my most recent role as Deputy Director at the National Library of Ireland (NLI), I led on major public humanities projects including the award winning exhibition Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, and a major partnership project with UCD, the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI).

What attracted you to this new role in UCD? 

UCD Library is home to world-class heritage collections and there is a brilliant team of passionate people working with them. Under the University Librarian Dr Sandra Collins, and with a major building transformation planned for UCD Library, including a new Cultural Heritage Centre, it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment to join UCD Library and to maximise the potential of our collections for UCD students, faculty and staff, and for the wider public.  I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to partner with UCD colleagues working at the NLI, most closely with Professor Margaret Kelleher on MoLI. I am excited by the chance to do more!

What will the new Cultural Heritage Centre look like?

The new Centre will be on the ground floor of the James Joyce Library, so it will be one of the first ways anyone will experience the Library and a 'must-visit' destination. It will bring UCD Archives, the National Folklore Collection, and UCD Library's Special Collections together, with a new shared reading room, dedicated space for teaching and learning, and exciting new exhibition and interpretation spaces, all underpinned by a commitment to universal access and life-enhancing experience.

What's so exciting about UCD’s collections? 

UCD's collections are not just nationally significant - they are world-class. From political papers that are fundamental to understanding the modern Irish state, to major literary archives and rare books, and one of the pre-eminent world folklore collections, they are an extraordinary resource for deep research and creative engagement. At the same time, their richness and breadth are such that we could find something of interest to absolutely everyone - and these are living collections, with historic and contemporary material being added all the time, so their potential is constantly growing.

How have they been made accessible to researchers and the public? 

Digitisation and digital access are crucial to making these kinds of collections more accessible and to making new kinds of research and engagement possible; we can see the value of this in sharing collections through UCD Digital Library, and there are plans to do more. For example, there is currently a digitisation project on the papers of Richard Mulcahy in UCD Archives underway, while elements of the the National Folklore Collection are also available through the Dúchás platform, a partnership with UCD Digital Library; Gaois, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. 

Our Cultural Heritage team partners on all kinds of creative projects, sharing their expertise and material from the collections in podcasts, on broadcast media such as on the recent Silent Civil War documentaries, and on major commemorative initiatives such as Poetry as Commemoration. There is also an emphasis on highlighting how the collections can be used for teaching and learning. All of this activity helps to share the collections and showcase what is being done, generating new ideas and creative perspectives on what else is possible. 

Who will be able to use the new centre and what resources can they expect?

Anybody can use UCD Archives, UCD Library's Special Collections, and the National Folklore Collection now, but they are in different locations and that can be a barrier to finding out about them, and to gaining access. What the Cultural Heritage Centre within the James Joyce Library will do is make using and enjoying the collections easier for everybody. It will highlight their importance and significance by making cultural heritage part of everyone's experience of UCD.

What stage is the project currently at and when can people plan their visit? 

UCD Library is currently working with UCD Estates on the major plans for our capital project, and the Cultural Heritage Centre is central to that vision. The first phase of the overall Library project - the refurbishment of student space on Level 3 - will be launched in September 2023. Over the rest of 2023 we will be working with the design team to produce the overall design for the next two floors of the James Joyce Library.

What other projects can we expect to see in coming years? 

We were delighted to launch the exhibition Heaney & the Classics in Special Collections recently, and to be joined by the Heaney family and Professor Roy Foster, who were welcomed by President Orla Feely. Curated by UCD alumnus Joseph Hassett, the exhibition gives a compelling sense of what will be possible in a new exhibition space that draws together all of the cultural heritage collections, and the potential to work with students and faculty as curators and co-creators. Creative projects, events programmes, exhibition initiatives and partnering on major research projects are all on our agenda.

How can people get involved?

Everyone is welcome to use the cultural heritage collections! You can get a sense of the collections by investigating the digitised material, checking out Poetry as Commemoration, making an appointment for the reading rooms or enjoying any of the other public-facing initiatives. We will also be undertaking a consultation process on the design of the Cultural Heritage Centre in the autumn, and look forward to shaping the future of Cultural Heritage together.

The Heaney & the Classics exhibition is currently on display at UCD Special Collections in the James Joyce Library, book a visit through special.collections@ucd.ie. Visit our UCD Research Spotlight on Irish Literary Culture to learn more about the exciting research going on in this area.

Images: Katherine McSharry; Poetry as Commemoration project in Cork; Welsh Ministerial visit to Heaney & the Classics exhibition at UCD.