Clare County Library's Local Studies Centre is a reference library and research centre dedicated to the collection of material on any aspect of County Clare. Located at the Manse, beside the de Valera Library in Ennis, it is open to the public free of charge. The centre also houses a collection of Irish interest material. Much of the material in the Local Studies Centre has been digitised and published online by the library's Information Services Department, based in Library Headquarters.

At the centre on display are major histories of the diocese and county, surveys, topographical dictionaries, yearbooks, family histories, maps, photographs and much more.

Much material that is located in other repositories is available on microfilm at the Local Studies Centre. The Dunboyne News cuttings and the Schools Folklore Survey of 1937 to 1938 are two such sources. The Local Studies Centre also houses substantial runs of journals and the published proceedings of different societies.