IT’S NOT OFTEN you find TheJournal.ie, Waterford Whispers News and the Irish Times on the same stage but a public vote on the websites that best record Irish life in 2016 brought the three together this afternoon.

As part of a project by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) to mark the 1916-2016 centenary, a callout was made to online users to contribute their thoughts on what sites should be preserved for posterity in the national digital archive.

There were two categories decided by the public -

The websites which they felt best recorded life in Ireland in 2016:

• TheJournal.ie
• IrishTimes.com
• WaterfordWhispersNews
• Rabble.ie
• Broadsheet.ie

The websites which they felt best remembered 1916:

• Century Ireland
• Galway: Decade of Commemoration
• Rotunda: Birth of a Nation 1916
• Westport/Cathair na Mart
• Come Here to Me!

Sandra Collins, the director of the NLI, pointed out that the diversity of sites chosen by the public showed the value of preserving this snapshot of Irish society.

The NLI has been proactive in recording “digital-born” information since 2004, recognising that such information can become unsearchable or lost over time. While the NLI is associated with preserving physical documents and a treasure trove of historical artefacts, the move of information online means thinking differently about how to archive this for the future.

TheJournal.ie editor Susan Daly with Arts and Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys and NLI director Sandra Collins. Marc O'Sullivan Marc O'Sullivan

Thanking the NLI and the public for the award, TheJournal.ie editor Susan Daly said:

It is significant that the NLI has recognised the wealth of information stockpiled online and the engagement that the Irish public has with that resource. We applaud their foresight in preserving this record of Irish society in this landmark year and are delighted to have made some contribution to that record.

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys also remarked on the important to “collect and preserve the present” and congratulated the websites chosen by public vote.

The NLI’s National Web Archive will be further supported by the Creative Ireland initiative launched last week. One of the five main pillars of that bid to promote arts, creativity and culture as a major part of the Irish identity is to invest in the country’s creative and cultural infrastructure. Digitisation projects and the building of national cultural collections are part of that plan for the heritage sector.

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