As summer arrives, it's a good time to take stock of the Lyric archive cataloguing project and to see how much work is still to be done. The Lyric archive consisted of around one hundred boxes when I began the project last September. When it is all complete, this number will be somewhat lower as there were many duplicates of material which I've separated from the main body of the collection. There are also around ten boxes of audiovisual material, mainly audio reels, which will not be catalogued with the archive, but in a separate project afterwards.
The archive is divided into sections such as the Lyric Theatre, Threshold, and the O'Malley family papers. These sections are then further subdivided. The Lyric section for example is subdivided into sections on productions, administration and correspondence. The aim of the arrangement is to organise the archive in such a way that researchers can easily locate material of interest to them, whether they have prior knowledge of the workings of the theatre or not. The catalogue will be accompanied by biographical information detailing the background of the archive. Each section then has a brief introduction which explains what material is included, and also gives some contextual information.
The project has progressed very well over the past eight months, and I'm delighted to report that it will soon be completed. The Lyric Theatre archive will then be fully catalogued and available to researchers, who I'm sure will find it an invaluable resource for the study of theatre in Ireland. We will also make the catalogue available online so that researchers can see it in advance of their visit.
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