The National Library is, as one staff member pointed out to me on a recent visit, “the memory of the country”. The staff member in question, Elizabeth Kirwan (whose official title is that of assistant keeper, preservation), swore she’d never used the phrase before but said it summed up the importance of a rather fantastic new exhibition in the Library-owned buildings of 2-3 Kildare St.

School kids will hopefully get to see the new exhibition in their droves… so maybe wait ‘til they’re on the bus to head in;o)

There are eight million artefacts contained within the Library, however, the topic of interest on the day I met up with Kirwan is two Microsoft Surface touch-screen displays which uses the company’s SilverLight application. They take up a central role in a Library collection on the Bog Commissions and, dubbed ‘discovery tables’, they allow visitors to forensically examine details and images of every object in the exhibition with details on many more Library artefacts included as well.

Granting visitors the tools to search by date and location before examining letters, pictures and other pieces of interest up close simply by using the touch-screen capabilities, the Surface computers are undeniably impressive though they do have their kinks (more on that later).

It’s promised there will more rolling exhibitions throughout the course of the year, the next batch in May on Alice Milligan, a prominent figure in early 20th century nationalist and literary revival circles and then between September and Christmas 2010 2-3 Kildare Street will host an exhibition on the Irish Texts Society.

Martha Rotter, developer evangelist with Microsoft said of the project, “These particular displays came about as Martello Media met with me last year about their interest in possibly creating a Surface application for this project.” The project grew  to include an online presence (which you can access here) and with the touch technology available in Silverlight 3, as Rotter explained recently on her blog Martello built the online application, using Deep Zoom to show off the items in the collection at a very high resolution and to allow for easy sorting and searching using metadata.

Dr Martin Mansergh, TD, Minister of State with special responsibility for OPW and the Arts is photographed here with the Chairperson of the National Library of Ireland Gerard Danaher, SC (left); Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland (far right) and Éamonn Ceannt, grand-nephew of the Irish republican Éamonn Ceannt.

Rotter continued, “They took all of the images that came through from the library and then designed the user interface in SilverLight and then added the tagging and meta-data so that it’s easier to search.”

The final displays will look familiar to any regular iPhone user so you’ll know how to scan through images, enlarge etc; though – if we’re being overly picky – the touch-screen isn’t quite as sensitive as one would like. Left to my own devices I had a scan through some of the more interesting aspects on display and once you get used to making sure to really signpost your movements with the touch-screen the actual content is phenomenal. Pick a period such as 1570-1650, and then pick a location such as Leinster and you get reams of options to look through in a clear-as-day display.

That what’s contained in the Surface display  is only a minute portion of what the Library contains overall is staggering as, far from being a mini showcase of a few interesting features, you’re offered a comprehensive look at several centuries of history around all the four provinces. Highlights include a set of 1920s cigarette cards illustrated by the painter Jack B Yeats that look amazing when examined up close, as does some early 20^th century photographer of Irish farming families (so clear you can see the freckles of every ginger in the clan). There’s a 1795 lottery ticket, and a 1588 deed signed by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Elsewhere there are 18th century survey maps of Irish bogs (designed to assess whether it was feasible to grow crops such as corn or hemp on Ireland’s bogs at a time when the English government was fighting the Napoleonic wars and suffering economic shortages); a letter from Éamonn Ceannt to his wife Áine O’Brennan, written a few hours before his execution on 8 May, 1916; and a notebook of stunning drawings by 19th century antiquary George Petrie of his archaeological finds, ranging from arrowheads to gold ornaments.

“Before we digitise the stuff you need to see the warts and all,” explained Kirwan. “They have to be in a reasonable state of conservation; that the integrity of the original object is still there. Then the preservation side the delicacy and fragility it has to be able to be handled by the photographer.”

What has been achieved though is certainly a source of pride for Kirwan and those associated with the Library. “I haven’t seen anything of this ilk in any other museum or library but I think for getting future generations towards history it’s a great idea,” she added.

Is it worth going to see? Definitely, though perhaps pick a quiet time – the library is open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until 9pm, Thursday and Friday until just before five and Saturdays until 4.15 – mainly because the exhibition room itself is relatively small (think of the type of one of the exhibition rooms in the National Gallery and then half that) and the two Surface tables are most certainly the centrepieces. If you walk in the door and find a school tour then I’d recommend just heading up to the Library itself for a nose around.

As Kirwan explained, the main focus is here is giving access where there never was before. In the past if someone wanted to examine that 1795 lottery ticket there would have been appointments, vetting processes and white gloves involved. Here you can now magnify it or anything else in the exhibit to such a degree that you can see every detail Jack B Yeats intended for us to enjoy.

So what are you waiting for? And who said us Komplett boys were uncultured?