Leabharlann ICC  - The David Whiteley Library

Welcome to Leabharlann ICC -The David Whiteley Library. With thousands of Irish fiction and non-fiction texts in both English and Irish (as Gaeilge), alongside rare books, we proudly stand as London's premier Irish heritage library. Our recently catalogued collection offers a wealth of resources that represent the many diverse facets of Irish culture, history, and its enduring impact. Whether you're pursuing academic research, tracing your family genealogy, or exploring Irish literature, our library invites you to uncover, learn, and forge meaningful connections with Ireland's rich heritage.

The David Whiteley Library at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith was established many years ago, and was partly developed out of the personal library of the late David Whiteley, who had collected numerous books relating to Irish culture. These were donated to the Centre following his death, and many volunteers helped to draw up a catalogue and run a lending library for visitors to the Centre over a number of years, prior to its temporary closure in 2015.

Following our reopening, the Centre has worked tirelessly to secure grants to enable us to re-establish a library which aspires to be relevant to the needs of its potential users, but also adaptable to the smaller space now available in the current building. We hope that it will prove to be reflective of the aspirations of a cultural centre, uniquely serving the Centre's community, the Irish diaspora of London, and other interested researchers.

We do not intend that the Library will be open to the general public, but rather that it should be membership-based. The key focus of the new library is Irish culture, and we have built on the original core Irish collection of the earlier library and welcoming thousands of donated books, thus considerably updated our resources since 2021.

A new LMS (Library Management System) called Heritage Cirqa has been purchased thanks to a heritage grant, so our updated catalogue will be available on-line. This will increase both efficiency and accessibility for our library membership over the coming years.

We will not be able to display all our resources on the bookcases in the Library at any one time, but with the catalogue on the Centre's website, potential readers are able to see specific details of the current holdings in the Library collection.

The ICC is proud to offer these memberships:

1) Full membership £60- Access to all texts and availability to borrow books.
2) ICC Student membership £45 - Same as as above but student ID must be verified
3) Reading Membership £30 - Access to all texts but books must remain in the ICC - no loan option
4) Low income or Community membership - only available with evidence of support, access to majority of texts - please speak to a member of staff about

Volunteer Opportunities:
At this time there are no open opportunities as all volunteer slots are full. However, if openings do appear please email [email protected] for more information.

AIMS and OBJECTIVES

• The purpose of the new David Whiteley Library is to serve as a source of knowledge and inspiration to a wide diversity of the Irish community and diaspora of London, and beyond, who may wish to join the Library and access its resources.
• The collection should aspire to be wide ranging, and so include current as well as classic texts on all Irish historical periods, key literary genres, and other areas of Irish cultural, linguistic and political interest.
• These texts should include academic as well as more accessible litera-ture, in order to meet the needs of the Library's potential membership, and researchers.
• The collection should also include reading matter, and other non book resources, which can reflect the work of the Centre's many cultural activities.
• The Library should not try to emulate the contents of a local public library, by impracticably including material on all subject areas, since the local area is already well-served by long-standing Borough libraries.
• Rather, our models should be other renowned and well-established cultural European centres in London, such as the Goethe, or the Italian Institute, albeit on a smaller scale, and with the emphasis here on specifically Irish-related matters.
• Membership of the Library will be on a subscription basis, with an annual fee paid to permit members access to the collection on set days of the week, and for them to be able to borrow an agreed number of books for a set period of time.
• All membership subscriptions will be used to cover running costs and so maintain the Centre's library. Funds will be used to repair, cover and replace items over time, and to enable the collection to expand so as to meet the changing needs of the users.
• Part of the collection because of its value, rarity and nature will not be avallable for lending, but access will be given to members to consult such reference texts in the Centre at agreed times, by arrangement.