Archives Service: Archival Collections: Getting Started

January 2022: Special Collections & Archives will be open Monday-Friday (excluding public holidays) to UCC staff and students, and members of the public. Individual Reading Room opening hours are as follows:

• Reference Reading Room & Microform Room: Monday-Friday: 11:00-16:30 
• Rare Books Reading Room: Monday-Friday: 11:00-13:00 & 14:00-16:30.

31 January – 13 May 2022: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 11:00-16:30 and Wednesday: 11:00-19:15. Check website for individual room openings.  

For more information about what items must be requested and to request them via the online request form see Request Special Collections & Archives.

We are offering the following as alternate means of access to Special Collections & Archives:

• Scan & Deliver for Special Collections' material including items in the Reference Reading Room, Microform and items that show Special Collections by Request / Special Collections by Appointment on the library catalogue.
• Reprographic requests for manuscripts & archival material via specialcollectionsarchives@ucc.ie

Every effort will be made to fulfil scan & deliver / reprographic types of requests, but this may not always be possible due to availability, copyright restrictions, size and condition of materials.

If you have any queries relating to our collections please email Special Collections & Archives  This email address is monitored regularly.

An active collecting repository, the Library Archives Service collects and administers archival collections generated from outside UCC which complement the research and teaching needs of University College, Cork. 

Archives are records naturally created in the course of everyday business, public or private, which merit preservation because of their unique information content.

Archives include photographs & photograph albums; audio and audio visual recordings; computer disks and memory sticks; paper-based records: manuscripts, letters, diaries bound volumes; maps from landed estate collections; and artworks. They may also include entire collections from private individuals.

The word archives is also used to describe the building in which archival material is stored and accessed.

Attic Press/Roisin Conroy Collection

The Archives of the Attic Press (BL/F/AP) were generated and collected by Róisin Conroy as co-founder and publisher of Attic Press and as an activist in the Irish Women's Movement. They were deposited in the Boole Library, UCC, by Conroy in 1997. The core sections of the collection relate to the activities of Conroy while working as a librarian within the research unit of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), the Irish Feminist Information group (IFI) and the Attic Press. The collection provides a a reflection on the various facets of Conroy's career as a librarian and information officer, publisher, and campaigner for women's rights. The material dates from the early seventies to the 1990s. This is a collection which is of particular relevance to those with research interests in the areas of feminism, women's rights, and the social changes which occurred in the seventies and eighties.