Dublin City University Library launch AtoM Archive Management System

Dublin City University Library is delighted to announce the launch of AtoM in partnership with Arkivum and EBSCO Information Services. AtoM is an open-source archive management system with digital preservation capabilities, to ensure collections, both physical and digital, are catalogued and accessible online supporting research, education and outreach.  One of the first digitised collections available on AtoM is the Seán Lester Collection, which includes the personal papers of Seán Lester, one of Ireland’s most important diplomats who became the High Commissioner of the League of Nations in the Free City of Danzig, (now Gdańsk, Poland) in the 1930s and from 1940 was the Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The collection contains diaries buried in a metal case during WW2 near the headquarters of the League of Nations and after the war ended, Lester dug up the case and returned with them to Ireland where this collection was subsequently donated to DCU Library by Patricia Kilroy and Ann Gorski, daughters of Seán Lester.  Correspondence between James Joyce and Seán Lester is among the highlights of this collection as Lester assisted the Joyce family by obtaining a visa for their daughter Lucia, after officials in Nazi Germany refused to issue her with a visa. Today on the 80th anniversary of James Joyce’s death, one particularly poignant letter stands out written by Lester to Nora Barnacle, Joyce’s wife, lamenting the passing of Joyce and his literary legacy to the world. Read the digitised copy letter here. Copy letter from Seán Lester to Nora Barnacle on hearing of the death on James Joyce, 13 January 1941, DCU Special Collections and Archives IE DCUA C1/9/c1_9_0041   ***