Belfast's Linen Hall Library has received a grant of over £1.8 million from the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund. Established in 1788, the library is the oldest in Belfast.
The chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Dr Eric Anderson, was in Belfast yesterday to announce the £1,822,000 financial package.
The money will be used to furbish and develop premises purchased by the library last year with the aid of another grant from the Lottery Fund.
"We hope it will be of benefit to the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland for hundreds of years to come," he added.
Mr John Killan, the librarian, described the grant as "tremendous" and outlined a plan to build a link between the new premises on Fountain Street and the original premises at Donegall Square, in the heart of Belfast.
Funding will also be used to carry out a major cataloguing and conservation project on over 30,000 books.
The financial aid received from the Heritage Lottery Fund over the past two years represents a change in fortunes for the library, which as recently as 1980 faced closure due to lack of funds.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has allocated over £18 million to various conservation projects throughout Northern Ireland in the last three years.