The National Irish Visual Arts Library operates a policy of developing catalogue records and descriptive finding aids for its Special Collections and making these available online.  The selection of collections for cataloguing is guided by a number of factors including the rarity of materials, the intellectual and historical value of the material, user demand for access and availability of resources.

Special Collections currently available to search online are listed below.

• Kilkenny Design Workshop The major part of the Archive consists of photographic material – photographic prints and negatives, 35mm slides and large-scale transparencies – which document all aspects of the Kilkenny Design...
• Irish Exhibition of Living Art The Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA) was established to address the need for a wider exploration of contemporary Irish art and the public demand for such a forum. The committee to organise the...
• Egan Gallery The Egan Gallery was located on Dublin's Ormond Quay, and later, on St. Stephen's Green. The archive provides a rare and unique primary document of the Irish art scene of the time and of the specific...
• Irish Embroidery Artists This collection is a comprehensive record of the development of embroidery as an art from in Ireland. Although the earliest records date from 1905 the majority of material covers the existence of...
• Friends of the National Collections The Friends of the National Collections is a voluntary body founded in 1924 by the Irish artist Sarah Purser. The organisation was established to help preserve Ireland's artistic heritage at a time...
• Earley & Company Earley & Company originated as Earley and Powells in Dublin in 1864. The firm was one of the largest and most prestigious ecclesiastical decorators both in Ireland and the U.K. The design archives...
• Artists Books The NIVAL collection of Artists Books is comprised of more than 1000 titles by artists born in Ireland and by non-Irish artists living and/or working in Ireland. The works are made by individual...
• College Student Registers The College Student Registers date 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...
• Poster Collection The collection of posters at NIVAL has been compiled during the past thirty years through donation, deposit and purchase from a variety of sources including artists and designers, printers, galleries,...
• FNCI Image Gallery Throughout their eighty-five year history, the Friends of the National Collections have documented their acquisitions on slide film to facilitate scholarly research and reproduction. A selection of...
• Dorothy Walker Archive Dorothy Walker was a dynamic and highly influential art critic, author and broadcaster. She played a central role in many of the most significant events in Irish visual art in the second half of the...
• Temple Bar Gallery and Studios An extensive collection of primarily paper-based records documenting the establishment and development of the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios from its establishment in 1983 through to 2000. The...
• Irish Patchwork Society The Irish Patchwork Society was founded in 1981 to promote the practice and art of patchwork, applique and quilting in Ireland. There are currently 8 branches located throughout Ireland.
• Michael Healy Collection The collection comprises a portion of the 1916 diary of the stained glass artist, painter and illustrator, Michael Healy (1873-1941); specifically it is the period from 20th April to 17th May which...
• Association of Artists in Ireland This collection represents a small proportion of the administrative documents which would have been generated by AAI over its twenty years of operation. They are mainly documents prepared for or...
• Fenderesky Gallery Image Collection The Fenderesky Gallery is a commercial gallery in Belfast that mainly exhibits contemporary art by living Irish and Northern Irish artists. The Fenderesky Gallery Image Collection consists of...
• Patrick Scott Archive Patrick Scott is one of Ireland's most significant artists. A remarkable 75 year career as artist, designer and architect displayed his unique fusion of art and design over an extraordinary breadth of...
• Jan de Fouw Jan de Fouw: July 15th 1929 – February 1st 2015. Jan de Fouw arrived in Dublin from his native Netherlands in 1951 to work as a freelance graphic designer. He had trained at the Royal College of...
• Cor Klaasen Cor Klassen: 1926 - 1989. Cor Klaasen moved to Dublin in 1956 where he began working for O’Kennedy Brindley Advertising. Klaasen was born in Amsterdam in 1926 and studied under Mart Stam, Wim...
• Helen Moloney Collection Helen Moloney was a stained glass artist by trade and she worked closely though not solely with Architect Liam McCormick for several churches around Ireland. She studied in NCAD and La Grande...
• Patrick Pollen Collection Patrick Pollen (1928-2010) was undoubtedly one of Ireland’s most significant stained glass artists of the second half of the twentieth century, following in the tradition of his mentor, Evie Hone,...
• Murphy Devitt Studios Collection Murphy-Devitt Studios was formed in about 1960 by John A. (Dessie) Devitt with stained glass artists John Murphy and his wife Róisín Dowd Murphy. John and Dessie had worked at Harry Clarke's Stained...
• Artists' Campaign (ACREA) Archive The Artists' Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment was set up in 2015 by artists Cecily Brennan, Alice Maher, Eithne Jordan, and the poet Paula Meehan. It began as an online campaign appealing to...
• Women Artists Action Group Archive The Women Artists Action Group (WAAG) was a nationwide group founded in the Spring of 1987 by Pauline Cummins (Chairwoman). Other founder members included Breeda Mooney, Veronica Bolay, Jenny...
• Kerr Shoe Collection This collection originated from the Kerr Family shoe shop business based in Mohill, Co. Leitrim. The shop was opened in 1956 and ceased business in the mid 90’s, retaining shoes from across this 40...
• Helen Lillias Mitchell Archive Helen Lillias Mitchell: 1915 - 2000. Helen Lillias Mitchell MRDS MRHA was an Irish artist and teacher. She was the founder of The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers and the Weaving...
• Irish Hospitals Sweepstake Advertising The collection related to the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake at NIVAL consists of two series. The first contains the artwork and accompanying materials used to create advertisement campaign designs to...
• Art Teachers' Association of Ireland The collection contains an extensive insight into the Art Teachers’ Association from its foundation to the early 21st century. Material includes policy documents, publications and various documents...