THE ART COLLEGE STUDENT REGISTERS
The College Student Registers form one of the Special Collections of the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) at NCAD. The Registers comprise 150 ledgers dating from 1877 to 1986, spanning the complete history of the Dublin Metropolitan School (1877 - 1936) and the first fifty years of the National College of Art and Design (1936 - 1986).

The DUBLIN METROPOLITAN SCHOOL and the NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
The history of the College spands a period of more than 250 years reflecting the growth and changes in the visual consciousness of a developing Irish culture. In the late 19th century the Dublin Metropolitan School was a centre for the Crafts revival attracting as students Jack B. Yeats and A. E. Russell among others. The legacy handed down by such prominent figures as Sir William Orpen, Sean Keating, Harry Clark and Maurice MacGonigal is a living tradition for the College. For over seventy years, NCAD has been a national institution educating over 1,500 students each year as artists, designers and art educators.

THE COLLECTION
The Art College Student Registers are mainly in bound volume format with some class attendance registers in 'notebook' format. There are approximately 20,000 named individuals within the Registers, providing a unique record of Irish artists and designers. Entries are alphabetical and provide details such as name, age, occupation, address, class number, registration number and fees paid. The records also contain important social and demographic information.

THE DIGITISATION PROJECT
In 2005, the Library completed a project to index and digitise the Student Registers and to establish a searchable database of the collection. The project was carried out by Eneclann, Ltd., an archives and records management company, and was funded by the National College of Art & Design and The Heritage Council. Following the Royal Dublin Society's indexation of the period prior to 1877, entitled The Dublin Society Drawing Schools - Students and Award Winners, 1746 - 1876, this project was intended to exploit a significant resource of historical importance and to greatly enhance the research and understanding of Irish art and design.

The indexing and digitisation of the College Registers has made remote public access to information on the collection possible. In accordance with preservation standards, the collection is being stored in appropriate packing materials and environmental conditions in an external archive storage facility. Once suitable climate-controlled storage conditions have been established in the National College of Art & Design, the registers will be returned to the National Irish Visual Arts Library.

THE DATABASE
The College Student Registers database is searchable under three fields: artist's surname, artist's first name, and/or year of attendance. A search may be carried out using any combination of these three options.
It is advisable to conduct a search only in the fields for which the researcher holds correct information. If one is unsure of an artist's first name or the year(s) in which an artist attended the College, it is advisable to search by the artist's surname only, as this will yield the greatest number of results.