NIVAL was established in 1997 by Edward Murphy,[1][2] a librarian at the National College of Art and Design for thirty-five years.
The library's aim is to document all aspects of twentieth- and twenty-first century Irish art and design.
NIVAL's books, journals and catalogues are the most comprehensive collection of published titles pertaining to Irish art and design.
[6] The ephemera files are a collection of printed documentation such as invitation cards, press releases, news clippings, brochures, and small-scale catalogues.
NIVAL's special collections are over sixty groups of discrete archival material which originated from one source and are more useful to the researcher when kept together.