The sod was turned today on a new building which will house an arts and humanities research institute in Trinity College Dublin.
Among those working in the Trinity Long Room Hub will be the team that is digitising the valuable books of the universities’ famous Long Room library in order to display them online to the world.
The building will facilitate a programme for postgraduate students and their projects. It will also host post-doctoral research facilities and offices for international fellows.
The four storey granite clad building is located between the 1937 Reading Room and the Arts Building and is due to be completed by April 2010.
It will house a 90 seat lecture theatre for presentations many of which will be broadcast online.
A seminar room will support video-conferencing of academic and managerial meetings with national and international partners.
“This is a fascinating time of innovation for the arts and humanities at Trinity College as the past meets the future through technology and advanced research methodologies,” Prof Poul Holm, academic cirector of Trinity Long Room Hub said.