This paper examines the development of a public exhibition opening in September 2026 at the National Library of Ireland, designed to create new pathways for heritage preservation and public engagement. Beatrice's Irish Voice is a hybrid, digitally-enhanced exhibition paired with an open workshop series, forming part of a multi-venue program spanning Dublin's leading cultural institutions, including Trinity College Dublin, the Museum of Literature Ireland, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Dublin. The exhibition invites audiences to explore centuries of cultural exchange between Italy and Ireland by examining how Irish women engaged with Dante and Italian literary culture as readers, travelers, and writers.

The paper reflects on the key decisions, challenges, and innovative solutions that emerged during the National Library of Ireland's development of new methodological approaches to digitally-enhanced participatory scholarship.

I begging by illustrating the bespoke digitization project designed in collaboration with National Library of Ireland curators. The initiative centers on Irish and British women's Dante scholarship from 1875 to 1938, including works by Julia Kavanagh, Eleanor Hull, Marion Mulhall, Rose Nolan Ferrall, and Alice Curtayne. These translations, critical studies, and comparative scholarship reveal forgotten networks of cultural exchange during periods of nation-building.

The project expands the library's digitized collection of rare materials while creating a dynamic digital exhibit accessible through library e-readers and displays. The exhibition employs a hybrid model that combines physical panels displaying original objects with digital infrastructure featuring interactive timelines and geographic maps. By interlinking this material with my Leverhulme-funded Modern Beatrices Archive (http://modernbeatricesarchive.org/), the exhibition situates these works within the broader transnational formation of Dante's female readership and women's dantismo across Britain, Ireland, Italy, and the United States.

I then turn to the public workshops, which will extend the digitization project by engaging participants in developing a digital story and time map of the Dante Society of Ireland (1908-1912). Using ancestry records, urban maps, and archival documents, participants analyze meeting reports across seven Irish newspapers (Evening Irish Times, Irish Times, Irish Independent, Freeman's Journal, Dublin Daily Express, Irish Weekly, and Ulster Examiner) to reconstruct membership networks through the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

This archival work reveals connections between Irish Dante scholarship and Italian cultural diplomacy, tracing the visiting scholars and political figures who shaped transnational intellectual exchange. Mirroring the Society's own participatory ethos, the workshops transform archival discovery into collective investigation, interrogating whose cultural contributions have been preserved and how institutional networks shaped Irish literary culture. By doing so, they demonstrate how digital humanities infrastructure can foster ongoing community scholarship rather than remaining a static resource.

Ultimately, the paper reflects on how the project shapes collective memory by involving communities in reinterpreting heritage and making marginalized voices accessible. It offers national libraries a model for preserving fragile collections while creating engaged, public-facing scholarship that delivers tangible public value.