The foundational collection of our Special collections is the library of Sir John T. Gilbert. Dublin Corporation bought the library of John T. Gilbert in 1902. It contains approximately 9,000 items including books, newspapers, manuscripts and pamphlets on a variety of topics with a strong focus of seventeenth and eighteenth-century books. A printed catalogue of the library was compiled by Douglas Hyde and D.J. O’Donoghue in 1918 and remains an invaluable code to this library of riches.