Ivy Anderson
Director of Collections at the California Digital Library
Abstract:
The advent of digital networks and the rise of online information, combined with increasing space and budgetary pressures, have created unique conditions for collaborative collection development in today’s research libraries. Shared print strategies and collection digitization are transforming the research library landscape of the 21st century, bringing us closer to the elusive ‘collective collection’ while enabling new digitally-oriented services to users. What does this emerging collective collection look like, and what are the critical success factors that will allow these developments to take hold?
Dr Susan Gibbons
University Librarian and Deputy Provost for Libraries and Scholarly Communication, Yale University
Abstract:
Inspiring Change: Studying Users to Improve Library Services- This presentation will demonstrate the use of anthropological and ethnographic methods to study library users. Using several examples, the presentation will show how research findings were used to improve library facilities and services. Discussion will also focus on how libraries can also align themselves to the needs of their host institutions.
Sally Bridge
Queen’s University Belfast
Biography:
Sally Bridge is the Borrower Services Librarian at the McClay Library in Queen’s University Belfast. Her responsibilities include management of front-line services, Disability Liaison Officer and International Student Support Officer. Sally has worked in all of the branches in QUB and prior to that worked in the University of Ulster in Jordanstown. Sally holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies and a BA degree in English and American Literature.
Abstract:
Each year an increasing number of students register a wide variety of disabilities when they begin their studies at Queen’s University Belfast. These can range from dyslexia and autism to mobility issues and visual impairments.
These students face any number of challenges as they progress through their education and the Library has a duty of care to help make their experience of using Library Services as positive as possible.
As the Library strives to provide an excellent level of customer service whilst fulfilling legislative responsibilities (SENDO (NI) Order 2005), this session will look at how Library Services has worked hand in hand with other University Support Services, to ensure that no student is educationally disadvantaged by their disability.
The session will mainly explore how the Library works in collaboration with Disability Services, with whom nearly 2,000 students (over 8% of the total student population) are currently registered this year. Through working closely with this department, the Library is able to identify and assist students both on an individual and a group level as we adapt and improve with each challenge we encounter. This includes extended loans, one-to-one induction, priority desk booking and improved signage and access.
The session will also look at how the Library works with other Support Services in Queen’s, such as the Estates Department and IT Systems, as we ensure that the health and safety requirements of our students are catered for, as well as their access to essential study aids.
Finally, the session will consider the facilities in the Library as a whole, which benefit both students who have formally registered their disabilities with the University and the many who prefer to manage by themselves.
Monica Crump
NUI Galway
Biography:
Monica Crump is Head of Collections at the National University of Ireland, Galway. In this role she has responsibility for collection development and management and for ensuring seamless discoverability and accessibility of library collections in all formats.
In previous posts in NUI Galway, Monica has been Head of Information Access and Learning Services, Head of Bibliographic Services and Collection Management Librarian. Prior to that she had various library and non-library related posts, including researcher on EU Funded projects, web editor and project manager for a software development company.
Abstract:
A Reading List Management system is not a library system per se. It acts as a bridge between academic staff, the library and students. It also forms an integration layer between library systems and the institute’s VLE, such that reading lists appear seamlessly in the relevant module of the VLE and displays live holdings and availability of each item on the list from the library management system.
Implementing and embedding a Reading List Management System therefore requires a significant level of collaboration between the library, academic staff and learning technologists. Without collaboration and cooperation, the great potential of a Reading List Management System cannot be achieved. However, academic staff and learning technologists have their own priorities and in an Irish context have rarely heard of the concept of a Reading List Management System.
This paper will present the story of implementing the Talis Aspire Reading List Management System at NUI Galway, the first Reading List system implemented in Ireland. You will hear about the various collaborations that were necessary to implement the system and get it off the ground, which at times felt more like coercion than collaboration!
The process of selecting academic staff as early adopters will also be presented, including how they were selected and how they were persuaded into collaboration and partnership. You will hear about the highs and lows of the implementation process and the first year of embedding a Reading List Management System, including how academic staff and students engaged with the system and their feedback on it.
Valerie King, Colette McKenna
University College Cork
Biography:
Colette McKenna: Director of Library Services
Colette McKenna’s career in the library professions has been within university libraries. She has held a varied range of role and was University Librarian in Ulster University. She is the current chair of the RIAN Board and represents CONUL on the HEAnet Board. Colette’s professional interests are research support services, open access and reaching out to user communities by facilitating access to our unique and distinct collections.
Valerie King: Currently Head of Academic Student Engagement.
Valerie’s portfolio includes looking at Library spaces and the impact on the user experience.
Abstract:
The Library Creative Zone incorporating Blackstone LaunchPad provides an unique experience for Library Users. The Creative Zone is a Library space which offers Library Users a cluster of zoned areas equipped with a suite of digital equipment which enables presentations, workshops, group work individual work. It is also furnished with a furniture collection suitable to all needs for example sofas, soft seats, high stools, low stools, low tables. Thus, individuals/small groups/large groups up to a total of 100 users can use the space and tailor it to their needs for their particular event. The space also includes Blackstone LaunchPad. The LaunchPad is a campus-based experiential entrepreneurship programme open to students, alumni, staff and faculty offering coaching, ideation and venture creation support. It is modelled on a successful programme originated at the University of Miami and was further developed and expanded by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. Support is available free of charge.
The collaboration of the College of Business & Law, the Library , Student Union, Building & Estates, and the US based Blackstone Foundation is an example of a type of partnership that offers an unique experience to the User and the Library . The challenge was to ensure the Library from the start was an active partner both in the design and development, kit out and contributing to the Event programme in the space. It was important for us as the University Library to retain the Library Identity within the partnership. In this way the Library becomes more than a venue and hall for hire but an active partner in the creative process. While the initiative is still at early start stage this presentation will show the project highlights, how it was developed, challenges, lessons learned and plans for the future.
Dr John Howard
University College Dublin
Biography:
Dr John B. Howard is University Librarian and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Informatics at University College Dublin; he also serves as Head of the Irish Social Science Data Archive.
Dr Howard has undertaken research in several domains, with funding from the Irish Research Council, the European Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Hewlett Packard Corporation, and others. He has served on boards of the Digital Antiquity Center, the Laura Boulton Foundation, the Repertoire International des Sources Musicales, and Stanford’s Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities
Abstract:
In the digital library domain, interoperability has long been accepted as the basis for cooperative and collaborative activities among libraries and archives. In practice, though, this has focused on metadata—and the library, archives, and developer communities can point to many years of success in specifying standards and best practices that enable the large-scale exchange of descriptive and other forms of metadata. Achieving interoperability of digital content—images, audio, video, and other kinds of data—has, however, lagged behind.
With the advent of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), this is changing. Indeed, the overall approach that IIIF takes is a game-changer insofar as it addresses how we serve images and how we implement client programmes for consuming them. But it may have its greatest impact in enabling novel ways for end-users to interact with images while remaining within a globally interoperable technical framework.
The presentation identifies the three IIIF specifications that have emerged to date, which speak to (a) serving images, (b) providing rich metadata about the object and services associated with image content, and (c) an approach to searching semantic information represented by images. It also considers how these specifications are implemented—through use of OAI-ORE, JSON-LD, and the Open Annotation Data Model—and why this approach opens new possibilities for how individuals and organisations interact with images.
The talk will illustrate key points with examples drawn from the UCD Digital Library and other IIIF-compliant sources of image data. It will demonstrate some of the power of the IIIF approach through IIIF-compliant image viewers, including Mirador and UniversalViewer, and will provide a view of diverse applications that are integrating IIIF support to facilitate image annotation, transcriptions, and translations. It will conclude with observations on challenges in implementing IIIF support, and the opportunities it offers to the Irish research library sector.
Stephanie Ronan The Marine Institute, Niamh O’Donovan Galway County Council, Caroline Rowan St. Michael’s Hospital
Biography:
Stephanie Ronan is an information professional at the Marine Institute. She is responsible for the library management and institutional repository. Her professional interests include CPD, data management and open access.
Niamh O’Donovan is a Library Assistant for Galway County Libraries. She is Treasurer of WRSLAI and founding member of the Literacy For All European Library Network. Her professional interests are social media, group facilitation and community development.
Caroline Rowan is the health librarian in St. Michael’s Hospital. An enthusiastic advocate for libraries, she is a Communications Officer for the HSLG, co-editor of HINT and collaborator on HEAR and Rudai 23.
Abstract:
In today’s rapidly changing technological and professional environment, there is an onus on librarians to upskill. However, with limited budgets and staffing, there is little opportunity to attend training courses, as this would impede day to day service delivery. Recognising this, a collaboration of Irish librarians from public, academic and specialist libraries accepted a two-fold challenge: (1) develop and deliver an online 23 Things course for the international library community and (2) coordinate and develop this course using online collaborative tools. The outcome of this initiative was the development of Rudai 23, an online introductory level learning 2.0 programme.
This course was easily accessible to all library professionals and provided an interactive and supportive learning environment. Rudai 23 is the first non-institute specific 23 Things course run in Ireland.
This presentation will evaluate the online collaborative approach used in Rudai 23, specifically, how the use of online tools affected leadership, communications and the assignment of roles in this voluntary group. The primary communication tools used during planning and delivery were text-centric, such as email, discussion forums and instant messaging.These channels lack the nonverbal social cues and establishment of common ground that is inherent in face-to-face collaboration. Thus a non-traditional model of leadership and collaboration was undertaken. A set of heuristics describing how to effectively collaborate when developing and delivering an online course is presented.
Catherine Ryan
University College Dublin
Biography:
Catherine works in UCD Library in cataloguing, collection development, and collection analysis. She has previously worked in the National Library of Ireland and the Digital Repository of Ireland in the areas of bibliographic description, digital archiving, digitisation standards, and Linked Data. Author of “Thesaurus Construction Guidelines: An Introduction to Thesauri and Guidelines on their Construction.”
Abstract:
The presentation will describe a collaborative project by the Digital Repository of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland to produce guidelines on the construction of thesauri for librarians and other information professionals. These guidelines act as an introduction to thesauri and outline the process by which they are constructed following international standards, including ISO 25964, and best practice. In addition to the guidelines, a pilot thesaurus was constructed as an illustrative example and facet analysis used to construct its hierarchical structure.
The project idea arose following a review of vocabularies, thesauri and other controlled vocabularies in use in Irish higher educational institutions as outlined in the report Digital Archiving in Ireland: National Survey of the Humanities and Social Sciences. This review revealed areas where a thesaurus would be of benefit. Irish folklore was chosen as there were a number of existing, comprehensive vocabulary resources which could be consulted. It also offered the most potential for reuse among digital and specialised collections and a greater possibility of further collaboration and development on both a national and international level.
The pilot thesaurus is a proof of concept and not yet a working tool. Nevertheless, a subset of this vocabulary is currently being tested on the Dúchas.ie project, a project to digitise the National Folklore Collection of Ireland, based in University College Dublin and one of the largest folklore collections in the world. The project demonstrates the ability of both national and research libraries to work together, identify areas of common interest particularly in the areas of digital libraries and structured vocabularies, and to develop applications of interest to library, folklore, and linked data communities in Ireland and across Europe.
Felicity O’ Mahony
Trinity College Dublin
Biography:
I work as an assistant librarian in the Manuscripts and Archives Library in Trinity College Dublin. I am the co-ordinator and editor of the online Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts in Trinity College Library project, compiled by Dr Barbara Crostini, at TCD.
Abstract:
Cataloguing specialised language collections has always been a challenge for manuscripts libraries. A grant from Trinity College Long Room Hub in 2010 provided the impetus to undertake an online catalogue of our Greek manuscripts. Dr Barbara Crostini, an Italian scholar with extensive experience in cataloguing Greek MSS, has undertaken the compilation of the catalogue. My role has been a combination of co-ordinator and editor. There are challenges in terms of the constraints of software and long distance collaboration but these are outweighed by the benefits. A number of important discoveries have arisen from the cataloguing process linking the TCD MSS with texts held in libraries on the Continent. In the process 32 MSS have been digitised and several of these MSS have had conservation treatment.
One aim that will certainly have been achieved by the end of this project is that of opening the Greek collection of manuscripts at Trinity College to a wider audience of scholars involved in the processes of Byzantine textual editing. New technologies in the field of digital humanities offer future possibilities in enhanced reading of palimpsest texts and streaming images of MSS on a single screen for comparative purposes.
James Molloy, Josh Clark
University College Dublin
Biography:
James Molloy: I have been working in UCD since 2006 and I am currently the College Liaison for Engineering and Architecture. Alongside my teaching and learning responsibilities, I am the Lead on our e-learning project and have specialisation in development of our teaching and learning spaces. I have previously held posts with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and working as a Library Advisor at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I look for opportunities within my position in the Library to be involved with projects that enable me to use my creative skills.
Josh Clark: I have been working at UCD Library in various roles since 2004 and am currently the Outreach Librarian, with responsibility for maintaining and updating the Library’s websites, social media and other promotional channels. I also work on the design and dissemination of various print and online promotions for UCD Library, and assist in the planning of Library events, often collaborating with other entities both on and off campus. My interests include social media marketing for academic libraries and mobile technologies as they pertain to Library services. http://twitter.com/jclark923
Abstract:
Getting to work directly on a project with students is often desirable but hard to put into reality. So when the opportunity arose through the All Aboard Project to engage and collaborate with students it was too good an opportunity to let pass. The All Aboard project is funded by Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and is managed locally by UCD Teaching and Learning. They needed initiatives that presented “digital activities” from various units across campus that would involve staff and student partnerships. The projects must develop either digital skills or online identity and actively engage students working with university staff.
This presentation will give an overview of the three library projects we put forward and the various collaborations involved in the process. Working with UCD Teaching and Learning to get our projects finalised, the first- hand experience working with students and looked at the end product of each project. What benefits did UCD Library gain from the project, from collaboration of library units, PR opportunities, student insights into the library and the production of creative peer to peer resources? Also we look at the challenges encountered and what lessons we learned from this experience. We will also report on the student experience and give feedback on what they felt they gained from their involvement working with the staff from the library.
Finally we will ask if there is a future in having more regular engagement with students. If there are significant benefits to the Library, how do we fund future collaborations outside of nationally funded initiatives? Is there potential for a national library collaboration to fund library based digital skills projects? This exciting project will be a considerable learning curve and will provide plenty of food for thought for the wider library community
Lorna Dodd, Dr Brian McKenzie
Maynooth University
Biography:
Lorna Dodd is Senior Librarian for Learning, Research and Information Services at Maynooth University. She previously worked in UCD Library as User Services Manager and Liaison Librarian supporting various disciplines within the Social Sciences and Science. In 2015, Lorna was awarded a Maynooth University Teaching Fellowship for the GAeL (Graduate Attributes eLearning) Project.
Brian McKenzie is the coordinator of the Critical Skills Programme at Maynooth University. He is particularly interested in the pedagogical implications of New Media and the use technology in the classroom and has published in Teaching History, The History Teacher, Diplomatic History, and French Historical Studies
Abstract:
In this paper we present an example of a successful collaboration at Maynooth University (MU) between the Library and the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).
The undergraduate curriculum at Maynooth University is currently being reformed to emphasize teaching, assessment, and the development of critical skills, including information literacy (IL). Curriculum reform is a challenging process that must negotiate academic culture, bureaucratic structures, and resource scarcity. However, as collaboration is increasingly seen as an essential condition for successful curriculum initiatives, it also offered a unique opportunity for the Library to collaborate with partners within the university and take a strategic approach to the development of IL across the curriculum. One of the ways this is being done is through the GAeL (Graduate Attributes e-Learning) project that embeds IL into the curriculum by developing a suite of e-Learning Resources that facilitate IL and critical thinking as part of MU’s Critical Skills programme.
A key challenge was to produce customizable, cross-curricular resources appropriate for formal classroom assessment. This collaboration thus combined competencies relating to academic disciplines, e-learning, and ICT. The challenges are technical, cultural, and pedagogical. This successful library/faculty partnership illustrates both the value and necessity of collaboration to develop digital resources and the strategic role the Library can potentially play in the development of the new curriculum.
Allison Kavanagh
Dublin Institute of Technology
Biography:
Allison Kavanagh is College Librarian of DIT’s Aungier Street library. Allison joined DIT in 2004, having returned to Ireland from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business’s Library. She is interested in information and digital literacies and collaborative work.
Abstract:
Collaboration with academic colleagues is common for librarians, but similar levels of collaboration with student services such as the careers service appear to be more unusual.
This presentation will outline how the Dublin Institute of Technology’s (DIT’s) Library Services and Career Development Centre (CDC) have deepened their collaboration since 2014 and our plans for further collaboration.
For many years, the CDC has held career workshops in the training room in Aungier Street library. The library also has a Careers area where careers literature is displayed. In 2014/15, Library Services and the CDC took this collaboration further by instigating the development of a digital literacy toolkit to aid the integration of digital literacy into programmes and modules, thereby helping students to develop this key graduate attribute. The toolkit was subsequently used as a template for a graduate attributes toolkit supporting the embedding of DIT’s graduate attributes into programmes and modules.
The librarians and CDC staff are currently collaborating to help students to find and secure employment. Following a meeting of the two teams in December 2015, the CDC team provided a list of questions which they encourage students to ask themselves when job seeking. This helped the librarians to devise the content for a “train-the-trainer” workshop offered to the CDC team in January 2016. The interactive workshop covered using the library’s business and news databases to research companies, industries and potential employers, and using Google’s advanced searching tools to more effectively find job vacancies.
The presentation will conclude with a description of the ongoing work to jointly develop a job-hunting website, combining library and CDC resources.
This collaboration is mutually beneficial. It offers obvious advantages for the CDC and job-seeking students whilst highlighting that Library Services offers transferable skills of use beyond their traditional setting.
Dr Bernard MEEHAN
Trinity College Dublin
Biography:
From 2011, Head of Research Collections and Keeper of Manuscripts, with curatorial responsibility for Manuscripts & Archives Research Library; Early Printed Books and Special Collections; Glucksman Map Library; and Music Library. Affiliated to Trinity Medieval History Research Centre, School of Histories and Humanities, TCD: http://www.tcd.ie/medieval-history/expertise/bernard-meehan.php. Research interests mainly in insular manuscripts, history and culture 6th-9th centuries; history and manuscripts of Scotland and northern England from the Norman Conquest to c. 1200, with excursions into modern literary and archival subjects.
Abstract:
Late in 2014, an important early fourteenth-century manuscript from St Mary’s Cistercian abbey, Dublin, emerged from an English country library, to be offered for sale by Christie’s in London . After an intense fund-raising campaign, it was acquired by the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where it was accessioned as TCD MS 11500. The first Irish medieval codex to appear on the market in over a century, the prospect of its return to Ireland generated an unprecedented level of enthusiasm in the University and across the historically-minded community in Ireland. The generous support of a range of funding bodies and benefactors enabled the purchase, This PowerPoint presentation looks at the process and approaches involved; at the significance of the manuscript itself; and at the focus which can now fall on those manuscripts from St Mary’s which are held in other libraries, and, indirectly, on the corpus of surviving medieval books from Ireland as a whole.
John McManus, Dr. Brendan Power
Trinity College Dublin
Biography:
John Mc Manus has worked as an assistant librarian in the Bibliographic Data Management Department of the Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, since 2004. As a former Chair and Secretary of the LAI’s Cataloguing and Metadata Group he has long been a strong advocate for continuous professional development in the area of metadata standards. He has particular interest in the implementation of RDA in Ireland, and has presented widely on the topic.
Dr. Brendan Power is a postdoctoral research fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. He has acted as the Library of Trinity College Dublin’s Web Archive Project Officer on this collaboration. A former Irish Research Council Scholar, he holds a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin and his research and published work centres on youth organisations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Abstract:
Early in the summer of 2015 the Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, undertook a project in collaboration with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the British Library to identify and archive websites that can contribute to an understanding of the causes, course, and consequences of the Easter Rising.
It arose out of a mutual desire to contribute to the 1916 centenary and to explore the possibility of establishing a themed special collection within the UK Legal Deposit Web Archive. It was also conceived in the knowledge that much of this material, transient by nature, needs to be stored, preserved, and made available for future generations.
The Bodleian Library focussed on archiving UK websites, and, since no legislation exists in Ireland, Trinity concentrated on collecting websites within the .ie domain and the wider diaspora on a voluntary basis with the permission of the owners. The latter were then subsequently made available via the open access UK Web Archive.
This presentation will review the project and the entire process of website curation. It will detail the training and the technical infrastructure provided by the British Library, and will review the problems and opportunities that emerged as the project proceeded. It will highlight in particular the challenges that arose from archiving both within and outside a legislative framework and across multiple jurisdictions.
Lastly it will also reflect on the parallel exhibitions held in the Long Room of the Library of Trinity College Dublin and in the Proscholium, Oxford, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, which drew upon both libraries’ extensive archives and emphasised once again the benefits of an international approach to curation and collection development
Peter Guilding
Trinity College Dublin
Biography:
Peter Guilding is an assistant librarian in Trinity College Dublin. He was Chairman of the LAI Cataloguing & Indexing Group (now CMG) 1990-2000. He has been involved with the LDL Shared Cataloguing Programme since its inception, and administrator of the programme in TCD since 1998.
Abstract:
Who creates the bibliographic records used by thousands of libraries covering material published in these islands and held in the British National Bibliography? Where do they originate? How much do they cost?
The evolution of the Legal Deposit Libraries’ Shared Cataloguing Programme was the direct result of the alarm caused by the proposals of the British Library’s consultation paper “Currency with coverage” (July 1987), which included the immediate suspension of Library of Congress subject headings and classification in its BNBMARC records. Among the BL’s Bibliographic Services clients were the five UK Legal Deposit Libraries (the national libraries of Scotland and Wales and the university libraries of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin) and their prompt reaction was the catalyst for a remarkable co-operative venture, which from tentative meetings in the latter part of 1987 developed into a robust programme capable of dealing with the vicissitudes of financial crises, publishers’ idiosyncrasies and constantly-changing bibliographic standards.
In essence the co-operative scheme allocated responsibility for the whole imprint between the BL and LDLs, according to budget and resources, to ensure comprehensive coverage, timeliness, and reduction of duplicated effort and overall cost. It could be argued that the core targets of the programme still remain to be achieved, but the preservation of high standards in tandem with reduction in unit cost remains a considerable achievement.
This paper will examine the Programme from the point of view of Trinity College Dublin and will address the wider aspect of bibliographic services provision in Ireland. Among the demonstrable benefits of the programme are enhanced authority control, sharing of metadata and value-added work, and, not least, the prioritization of the Irish imprint whose coverage had previously been very patchy. It will also address the huge challenge of integrating e-Legal Deposit into existing metadata workflows.
Michelle Agar
Trinity College Dublin
Biography:
Michelle Agar is an Assistant Librarian (Cataloguer) in the Collection Management Department of the Library of Trinity College Dublin since April 2015. Previously she has worked in the James Joyce Library, UCD as a Library Assistant in the Special Collections and Humanities Departments, and was an Assistant Librarian on the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive project, also based in UCD, where she catalogued digitised collections using MODS and METS. From 2007 to 2015 she worked for an Australian library consortium called CAVAL, also as a cataloguer, in this instance cataloguing material for inclusion in CAVAL’s CARM Shared Collection.
Abstract:
CAVAL is an Australian library consortium established in 1978 as a not-for-profit company and is owned by 11 member universities in the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. Based in the suburb of Bundoora on the outskirts of Melbourne, CAVAL, an acronym for Cooperative Action by Victorian Academic Libraries (its remit has since expanded to include members outside of Victoria) provides a wide range of co-operative and fee-based library services for members and non-members.
CAVAL’s most notable services from the viewpoint of partnership include its collaborative approach to the storage of print and non-print collections in its CARM1 and CARM2 climate-controlled secure repositories. Also notable is the cooperative model CAVAL has adopted since 1996 in relation to preservation of, and access to, print materials in the CARM (CAVAL Archival and Research Materials) Shared Collection located in CARM1, as well as to members’ and non-members’ own collections in CARM2.
CAVAL also facilitates cross-institutional borrowing through its Reciprocal Borrowing Programme, a scheme which is run by CAVAL for eligible staff and students of 21 participating third-level institutions. CAVAL provides support and training for resource-sharing. It offers a service encompassing the selection, acquisition, cataloguing and end-processing of materials in more than 80 languages which offers the benefit of reduced cataloguing costs and quicker turnaround times. CAVAL operates library leadership and cross institutional mentoring programs, and interest groups and committees which advise on issues of importance to libraries, each of which provides its members with an opportunity for networking with each other.
This paper seeks to discuss, from the perspective of collaboration, the key services of CAVAL, to identify the advantages and disadvantages which can arise as a result of such a strategy, and the lessons learned thus far from the CAVAL experience of collaboration.
Sarah-Anne Kennedy
Dublin Institute of Technology
Biography:
I graduated from the MLIS in UCD in 2010.I have been with DIT Library Services since 2006 working in libraries supporting the College of Business and the College of Arts and Tourism. I am currently the subject librarian for Media and Law. I am interested in engaging and supporting students through blended learning.
Abstract:
DIT Library services has developed Library Learning, a digital library information pack, in collaboration with academic staff. Funding allowed us to develop a prototype that can be rolled out to our TU4D partners. The pack is aimed at first year undergraduates to support transition into third level. The development of Library Learning has strengthened our collaboration with one school where embedded Information Literacy (IL) sessions were already established. With a second school, we have been able to create collaborative opportunities for teaching and learning where previously there was very little occurring.
An established IL program already exists where librarians provide face-to-face, embedded and one-to-one sessions and off-campus support. The embedded sessions are designed in collaboration with academic staff. Assessment includes an element that is delivered and marked by librarians. Not all courses contain an embedded module, so we tend to only see those students for one hour in induction week. Library Learning was developed to deliver information to the students throughout the academic year and in a format that facilitates asynchronous learning and supports our existing IL program.
A pilot project is currently underway which includes two groups of first year undergraduates from the School of Media and the School of Marketing. These students are receiving a total of 10 strategically scheduled, tailored mailouts throughout their first academic year. Mailouts are authored by librarians in collaboration with academic staff who provide information on course content, assessment information, curriculum linked resources and important academic dates.
We are using Mailchimp which gives us in-depth data on student engagement by alerting us to patterns where we can then directly target students with low levels of engagement. The data enables us to provide real-time feedback on engagement, down to an individual level, to librarians and academic staff which can then inform our collaborative teaching.
Susie Bioletti, Felicity O’Mahony Trinity College Dublin, Elaine Harrington University College Cork, Ursula Mitchel Queens University Belfast
Abstract:
In 2015 the CONUL Collections, Preservation & Conservation Sub-Committee began a survey of Unique and Distinct Collections across the CONUL Libraries, with the aim to identify the size of the UDC’s, their age ranges, their accessibility via records and digital surrogate, and their preservation need. With this data we hope to promote the cultural and scholarly value of the collections, and to open discussion about collaborative work packages. Synergies, complementarity and overlaps run through all our libraries where collectively we tell the story of Ireland, its history, its people, and their preoccupations. This paper will present some of the highlights from our survey which we hope will lead to joint projects to expose our rich and valuable resources in new and innovative ways, and provide for their continued preservation.
Eoin McCarney
University College Dublin
Biography:
Eoin McCarney is Head of Collection Services at UCD Library, where he previously worked as Systems Librarian. He has also worked in DCU Library, the National Library of Ireland, the Royal Irish Academy and IT Tallaght. He is interested in all aspects of collection development and management and has been a member of the IReL steering group and a number of CONUL working groups.
Abstract:
Although Ireland is a relatively small country it has never had a union catalogue. This is an impediment not only to the visibility of the country’s collections but also to shared initiatives around collection development, management and storage.
A CONUL union catalogue would expose the rich tapestry of cultural heritage that we have collected and curated across our island. It would allow CONUL libraries to assess their strengths and weaknesses against their partner institutions and provide a platform for collaborative initiatives around collection building, resource description, digitisation and storage. In an era of limited resources it is vital that we work together instead of separately.
The whole CONUL group is much greater than the sum of its parts. We have achieved a lot in our institutions locally but we haven’t been as successful on a national level. The key to national success is collaboration and a CONUL union catalogue is a key enabler in that regard. As Helen Keller said “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Jane Burns University College Dublin, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dr. Weiyi Wu Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Biography:
Jane Burns, MBA, MLIS, MPhil, FLAI has over 20 years’ experience as a library & information professional. She was awarded Fellowship Membership of the Library Association of Ireland and sits on its Executive Board. Jane is currently Research Officer in the Health Education Centre at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and is an Occasional Lecturer in the School of Information Studies at UCD. Her research interests include Medical Humanities, Digital Humanities, Information Professionalism and Health Competencies of Health Librarians.
Weiyi Wu, PhD, MA, BA is currently a postdoctoral research fellow of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She received her PhD from University College Cork, Ireland in 2013, with a dissertation on the social identity of Educated Youth in China. She has over 8 years’ experience in cultural and creative industries research. Her research interests include cultural studies, youth studies and qualitative approaches to digital research.
Abstract:
Digital humanities in China is an emerging yet less mature subject comparing to the situation in Ireland. Yet as the interests and awareness are enhancing in various research areas such as GIS, archaeology, and digitization of material culture and folklore, we would expect to see a flourishing prospect of collaboration between the two disciplines, in academia, research and libraries and also in more broad application.
In this presentation, the researchers would firstly illustrate their perception and approach to digital humanities research and practice and then point out directions for possible cooperation, including twining and exchange between major institutes like Chinese National Library and Trinity Long Room Cluster and UCD library; specific collaborative projects e.g. digital publishing of Irish Missionaries to China from a Medical Humanities perspective; knowledge and expertise exchange in Culture conservation and preservation.
The researchers will also introduce practical experience of a few digital humanities projects conducted in Ireland and China. They would look forward to valuable suggestions and comments from experts at this conference.
Research in Progress
Please note preliminary research in this area was presented at the International Conference: Culture and the Creative Economy in Global Context Artists and Creativity (The University of Chester China Centre, University of Chester, UK Feb. 2016)
Ciara Kerrigan
National Library of Ireland
Biography:
An archivist by training, Ciara Kerrigan has worked in the National Library of Ireland for the past 15 years in a number of different areas, including Manuscripts, Services, and Outreach. She managed the project to digitise and publish online the NLI’s collection of Catholic parish register microfilms, the largest digitisation project ever carried out by the NLI.
Abstract:
Wednesday 8 July 2015 was a landmark day for Irish genealogy. The launch by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) of its website “Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI” (registers.nli.ie) transformed genealogy services in Ireland. For the first time, researchers all over the world could freely access over 370,000 digital images from the original registers of baptisms and marriages from almost every Catholic parish in Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. The significance of these records arise from the fact that owing to the loss of the Ireland’s 19th century census records, these records of baptisms and marriages are the only record of the existence of most people who lived in Ireland during that time. Prior to the launch, researchers who wished to view the registers had to travel to the NLI in Dublin, where the records were available on microfilm. This presentation will focus on the methodology employed by the NLI to make the digital images of the microfilmed registers freely available online, and in particular the essential role that collaboration among librarians, archivists, software developers and genealogists played in the project. This collaboration was crucial in ensuring that the core principle of the project was achieved – to make access to images within the registers as easy and flexible for researchers as possible, while offsetting as many of the limitations imposed by the original source material and NLI’s budget as practicable.
Dr Bernadette Cunningham
Royal Irish Academy
Biography:
Dr Bernadette Cunningham is Deputy Librarian at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin and Managing Editor of Irish History Online. Working with colleagues in the Czech Republic, she recently co-edited the Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on European Historical Bibliographies. She is the author of several books on early modern Irish history.
Abstract:
Irish History Online is an online bibliography that itemises what has been written about Irish history from earliest times to the present. Updated regularly, it lists writings on Irish history published since the 1930s and currently contains over 92,000 bibliographic records. The database is hosted and managed by the Royal Irish Academy Library, and is one of a network of sixteen historical bibliographies in fourteen European countries (www.irishhistoryonline.ie).
The European Historical Bibliographies Network is a collaborative international project of subject-specific bibliographies from fourteen European countries. These bibliographies are part of the fundamental research infrastructure for the humanities in Europe. The Network promotes cooperation among the participating institutions and brings together, on a European level, their various national bibliographic resources so that trans-national historical research is facilitated. The common platform is hosted by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) (www.histbib.eu).
The European Historical Bibliographies Network has held five international conferences to address technical data-management, cultural and historical issues experienced by the various individual bibliographical projects. This paper will assess recent work on European Historical Bibliographies and the role of Irish History Online within that international collaborative framework.
Siobhán Dunne
Dublin City University
Biography:
Siobhán is Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian at Dublin City University. Prior to this, she held the role of Research Support Librarian at DCU and Information and Library Manager at the National Disability Authority. She has been actively researching how librarians and faculty collaborate to improve the first year learning experience. Other research interests include bibliometrics for the humanities, academic ebook design and the role of higher education libraries in civic engagement. Siobhán sits on the LIR HEAnet User Group for Libraries and chairs the CONUL Committee on Teaching and Learning.
Abstract:
For higher education students, learning can happen anytime and anywhere, however not much is known about how students actually conduct research. A User eXperience (UX) approach, which deploys an anthropological lens, has typically focussed on how library users are interacting with space and services. In this paper I will present the findings of an ethnographic study which shifted the traditional focus of UX to understand how students are engaging with the research process. Using participant observation, behavioural maps, student diaries and retrospective interviews, I was provided with unique access that enabled me to capture the behaviours of these students in their own environments. The research examined the practice of undergraduate research both inside and outside the library walls and found that the research process can be influenced by a number of factors including age, experience, work commitments, family, peer, academic and library anxiety.
I was acutely aware of my responsibility as a researcher to build trust and honesty with the students. Working so closely with them enabled me to discover patterns in their research behaviour, discuss their approach to research and identify gaps in support. This was collaborative ethnography; as I observed research practice, I was able to provide instant advice to help them improve their research skills. In addition, I have discussed my findings with academic colleagues and together we have been making improvements to undergraduate study skills modules. This paper will discuss how an ethnographic approach has informed my professional practice and ultimately improved how I deliver research skills support to undergraduate students. I will also reflect on the role ethnography can play in empowering librarians to perform a leading research role within their own institutions.
Katherine McSharry
National Library of Ireland
Biography:
Katherine McSharry obtained her MLIS in 2002, and has since worked as Special Collections Librarian in UCD Library, and on exhibitions and digital projects at the National Library of Ireland. She is currently Head of Outreach at the NLI, with a portfolio that includes exhibitions and public programmes, learning activities, public affairs, and marketing and communications.
Abstract:
Since 2012, the National Library of Ireland has been engaged with a number of partners on a series of community collecting initiatives centred on the Decade of Commemorations. As part of this process, members of the public have been invited to share their personal collections and memories linked to key moments in the momentous years between 1912 and 1922.
This presentation will explore the National Library’s work on these initiatives from two linked but distinct perspectives. It will examine the nature of the collaboration with different public communities around memory and commemoration, and identify some of the learning about how to manage and deepen the relationships between a library and its users (current and potential) through these kinds of activities.
More broadly, it will also consider how such activities can provide a platform for engagement and collaboration with other libraries, cultural heritage organisations and community groups. It will suggest that taking on public outreach projects that can’t be delivered by one organisation alone is a challenging but enriching process, and demonstrate how the relationships built by the National Library through the community collecting initiatives have all led to further engagement and mutually beneficial subsequent projects.
Hugh Murphy, Barbara McCormack
Maynooth University
Biography:
Hugh was appointed Senior Librarian, Collection Management Services in October 2010, having worked previously in University College Dublin Library and in the National Library of Ireland. Since 2005 he has acted as an occasional lecturer in the School of Information and Library Studies in UCD.
He also lecturers on Maynooth University’s MA in Historical Archives and is currently pursuing doctoral studies in early 19th century history. Hugh’s main professional interests lie in the areas of collection development, library buildings, and resource description.
Barbara McCormack is a librarian with experience in a wide range of public and private institutions including: The British Library, Trinity College Library, the Irish Taxation Institute, and Fáilte Ireland. Barbara has studied medieval books, letterpress printing, and historic bindings at the London Rare Books School. She is a volunteer at the National Print Museum and teaches on the MA Historical Archives at Maynooth University. Barbara currently works in Special Collections where she manages historic collections including rare books, manuscripts and archives in the Russell Library and John Paul II Library at Maynooth University.
Abstract:
Over the last eight years the Library at Maynooth University has actively collaborated with the Department of History in the delivery of a Master’s Degree in Historical Archives. This successful collaboration has seen the Library take a leading role in the design, delivery assessment, and evaluation of the Masters and has culminated in the recent accreditation of this programme by the Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland). The aim of this programme is to provide students with the skills necessary for the professional management of historical archives. Archivists, librarians, and conservators at Maynooth University Library contribute to over 50% of modules delivered on this postgraduate course. Modules delivered solely by library staff include: Leadership and project management, Book collections in archives, Preservation management, and Managing Archival Collections.
This collaboration has been mutually beneficial for both the Library and the Department of History and has contributed positively to the range of postgraduate programmes offered by Maynooth University. However, the main benefactors of this collaboration are the students themselves. Those enrolled on the MA Historical Archives receive instruction in both the theory and practice of archival management. The ARA Qualification Accreditation Team recently commended staff involved in course noting that they “bring a breadth of skills and experience to the programme which will be of great benefit to the students”.
This presentation will outline the Library’s involvement in this collaboration, specifically focussing on the following:
• Reasons for the collaboration
• Background, development and accreditation
• The benefits of this collaboration for the Library, Academic Department, University and students
• Impact on staff time and resources
• Recommendations
This session will be of interest to library managers, special collections librarians, and those involved in information literacy instruction.
Laura Rooney Ferris Irish Hospice Foundation, Jane Burns, Eric Clarke and Richard Arnett Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Biography:
Laura is the Information and Library Manager of the Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) a position she has held since 2009. Her current role involves the management and strategic development of the IHF’s specialist library and information service, research support and web development. From 2005 to 2009 Laura worked in the Library of Dublin Business School. During this time she completed the HDip Library & Information Studies with the University Of Wales, Aberystwyth. Prior to moving into this profession Laura held a number of positions in the Financial, Recruitment and Medical technologies sectors. She also holds an MA in Media Studies from DIT. Professional interests include: integration of new media and emerging technologies in library and information service provision, Social Media marketing, Open Access publishing, digital literacy and Solo-Librarianship. Laura has served on the Academic & Special Libraries committee of the LAI since 2012 and been Communications Officer with A&SL since 2014. She has published in An leabharlann and contributes a regular review of articles to the journal Bereavement Care
Jane has over 20 years’ experience as a Library & Information Professional. She has worked in a number of different library environments including Third Level, Government, Educational, Science, Digital Media and Health Sciences. Jane serves on the Library Association of Ireland’s Executive Council, Career Development Committee and the Task Force on Information Literacy. Jane is an Occasional Lecturer at UCD School of Information Studies where she teaches Management for Information Professionals. She is also a published author. Jane’s current role is Research Officer in the School of Nursing & Midwifery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Commencing in September 2015 Jane is a PhD candidate at University College Dublin in the School of Education.
Eric Clarke is currently a member of academic staff at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and lectures in Health Informatics to foundation year students in Dublin, Bahrain and Penang. As the use of technology has become embedded with the undergraduate curriculum, Eric has applied his experience to advise and contribute to a range of academic projects within the organisation and has also presented this work at both national and international conferences.
Dr Richard Arnett is the Associate Director of the Quality Enhancement Office (QEO) in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He specialises in the collection, analyses and reporting of quantitative and qualitative data particularly in the fields of assessment and evaluation and is responsible for the collection, analyses and reporting of student feedback for all RCSI programmes in Ireland and overseas. Dr Arnett teaches courses in basic psychometrics and also works as a consultant in this area. His previous role in RCSI was as Deputy Director of the RCSI Graduate Entry Medical Programme, from its inception until its first graduation.
Abstract
Twitter has undoubtedly been seized by information professionals as a valuable tool for sourcing and sharing information. As twitter increasingly becomes a route through which personal narratives and lived experiences are shared it opens up new avenues for exploration and data mining. For those working in health and social care, conversations on twitter offer insight into real time public information sharing on health topics. It also poses questions about who is posting and the nature and cogency of their posts. Given the vast quantities of information shared through twitter successfully harvesting tweets for analysis can be challenging.
This presentation outlines collaborative research between the Information manager of the Irish Hospice Foundation, and Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The collaboration grew from two previous conference presentations; one by the RCSI team on harvesting tweets on health topics and one by the Irish Hospice Foundation Information Manager on expressions of bereavement though social media platforms. It illustrates how collaboration is a route to enabling research for information professionals in smaller organisations. It also highlights how communicating and sharing research interests through conference presentations and discussions can facilitate further cooperative working opportunities.
We will present findings from a sixty day harvest of tweets on the hashtags #bereavement #Hospice #Palliative #grieving #grief #complicatedgrief. A content analysis of tweets will be presented examining the type of information shared, the users tweeting most prolifically on the topic and the quality of the information shared. A brief overview will be given on the nature and impact of social media conversations on bereavement drawing on the continuing bonds model of grief. We will also examine the categories of twitter user sharing on the topic and the emerging trends in content.
Evelyn McAuley, Ken Bergin
University of Limerick
Biography:
Evelyn McAuley is Archivist in charge of Outreach, Engagement & Exhibition at the Special Collections & Archives Dept. at the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick
Abstract:
As of 1st February 2016 the Representative Church Body of the Church of Ireland gave responsibility for the Cashel Diocesan Library to the Special Collections & Archives Dept. of the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick. Limerick has taken on the responsibility of this famous collection put together by Archbishops Theophilus Bolton and William King in the early 18th century. Basically theological, more than half of the library is devoted to science, literature, law and politics.
The challenge for UL is to make this a library once again. For years it was a jaded museum and the books were not available to researchers. Now Limerick has to preserve and catalogue the collection and make it accessible to scholars throughout the world. The Glucksman Library also has to work with the Church of Ireland, the Office of Public Works, Tipperary County Council, the Heritage Council and the Cashel Heritage Company in providing a public exhibition on the diocesan library in Cashel. This window on the library will provide the community with a modern interpretation of the books and manuscripts collected by Bolton & King. UL is tasked with taking a leading role in this national and local collaboration exercise in saving and promoting this iconic cathedral library.
The presentation will give CONUL an insight into the history of the Cashel Diocesan Library as well as the plans to publicise and make available this remarkable library to a local, national and international audience.
Sinéad Keogh
University of Limerick
Biography:
Sinéad Keogh has worked at the University of Limerick since 2006. Following roles in subject support and research support, she now works in the Technical and Digital Services Department. As the librarian for the Digital Services unit, she manages the UL Institutional Repository and, more recently, the digitisation laboratory and the digital library.
Abstract:
Last year the Department of History in UL launched a new module for their master’s students called the ‘Public History Internship’ (PHI). The module was designed to provide students with the opportunity to work in an archival institution, such as a library or museum, to gain experience in the processing of collections for presentation to the public. It was envisioned that this could involve cataloguing, transcribing or exhibiting material, depending on the host institution. Running throughout the second semester, the intern is available to work for two days each week. They are asked to blog about their particular project as they progress and, upon completion, they must deliver a presentation on their work.
In 2015 our Special Collections department had a PHI student to work on listing and describing material from one of our collections for use in our 1916 exhibition. This year however we were asked if we could broaden the experience to include an element of digitization in the work. Although we would only take one student from the cohort, we were also asked to deliver a general introduction on digitisation to the whole class prior to them leaving to go to their respective host institutions.
Working with Special Collections, and the Department of History, we developed a general introductory class to archives and digitisation and then selected a project suitable for our intern to gain the maximum experience possible given the time and resources available. This process has not only benefited the PHI module but it has allowed us to expand our roles to not just delivering training to core and casual staff but also to non-library staff and students. This presentation discusses how we collaborated with the other departments to establish relevant reusable training resources and our plans for the future.
Elizabeth Kirwan
The National Library of Ireland
Biography:
Elizabeth Kirwan has worked as an Assistant Keeper at The National Library of Ireland since 1984. Among other areas, Elizabeth has managed the NLI’s Prints & Drawings, Manuscript and Early Printed Maps, and since 2010, the National Photographic Archive, collections. Elizabeth has curated many widely acclaimed NLI exhibitions, including Discover Your National Library, and Power and Privilege: Photographs of the Big House in Ireland 1858-1922 (see www.google.com/culturalinstitue/#!home). Many of these exhibitions have been organised in collaboration with external bodies, guest curators, and more recently, with Dublin City Council.
Abstract:
The National Library of Ireland’s National Photographic Archive (NPA) actively collaborates with Dublin City Council (DCC) in Dublin’s Temple Bar cultural quarter. This presentation describes the 2013 collaboration between the NPA, Dublin’s Lord Mayor and DCC, the photographer Jeanette Lowe, and the Pearse House Flats community. This community collaboration developed when the NPA lacked acquisitions and exhibitions budgets.
In autumn 2013, The National Library of Ireland’s National Photographic Archive (NPA) and Pearse House Flats jointly housed Jeanette Lowe’s photographic exhibition, Pearse House: Village in the City. Village documented the community of Pearse House Flats nearby in Dublin’s Pearse Street. The NPA exhibition was organised in collaboration with photographer and exhibition curator Jeanette Lowe, Dublin City Council, and the residents of the Pearse House flats complex.
The exhibition Pearse House: Village in the City was a practical and imaginative collaboration between the NPA curator and the self-funded photographer-curator, by way of mounting NPA exhibitions and growing NPA collections, in a severely challenged financial environment. In actively engaging with its local community, the NPA, a National cultural institution, engaged with a new audience. Part of this engagement included creating a living exhibition by way of interactive wall spaces, including a living archive, where exhibition visitors could share their family photographs of Pearse House. Using the exhibition photographer’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Pearsehouse/, the NPA and Pearse House Flats exhibitions interacted with communities both within and, in the year of The Gathering, beyond, the physical exhibition spaces. The collaboration of the NPA with Dublin City Council raised 50% of the exhibition funding requirements, generated revenue to local businesses, engaged large audiences particularly during Heritage Week and during Culture Night, created a larger awareness of the NLI’s photographic collection, and copies of the exhibition photos were to be donated to the NPA.
Brian Gillespie
Dublin Institute of Technology, College Librarian.
Biography:
Currently, Dublin Institute of Technology College Librarian, Engineering and Built Environment. Previous to that, 10 years as the DIT Faculty Librarian Tourism and Food. Member of Library Senior Management Team. Earlier professional posts at University College Dublin, and University of Ulster Coleraine. Wide range of other posts and positions dating back to my first job in the Belfast Abattoir in 1976. Undergraduate study at University of East Anglia, Norwich, Post graduate at Aberystwyth University.
Abstract:
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
Falling budgets, staff cuts, shrinking resources. Yet all our libraries still manage ingenious solutions inspired by difficult times.
‘Don’t waste a crisis.’ One of the ways of countering hard times is doing more with more people. Collaboration, partnerships, at all levels. But nothing is that easy or simple.
A recent OECD report has found that 1 in 5 Irish grads has no more than basic grasp of language and numeracy.- poor skills that “undermine the currency of a university degree”.
Add to the mix the woeful underfunding of higher education, recently highlighted by John Hennessy, the outgoing chairman of the HEA, “which is stressing the system to breaking point”
My emphasis in this talk is the opportunity that the crisis provides to seek out new collaborations with different people in our organisations and in doing so, whether accidentally or not, strengthen our role in the academic firmament by forging new alliances and further embedding ourselves in the student learning process.
There is commendable work being done by enterprising, engaged, work proud staff who recognize the importance of new initiatives and collaboration to benefit their students. But on top of this it’s critically important that the idea of collaboration, and collaboration not just with academics, be written or enshrined into management strategy.
This lightning talk will then go on to outline some of the collaborative DIT strategies and responses being taken by the library with support services or academic schools. Working with Learning Teaching & Technology, Careers, Maths Learning, Academic Writing Centre, Campus Life, Community Links
Session Type: Lightning Talks
Themes addressed: UX Collaboration, Strategic Collaboration, Institute wide Collaboration, Building Successful Partnerships.
Contact email address (for old people): brian.gillespie@dit.ie
Cillian Joy
National University of Ireland
Biography:
Cillian works on Digital Publishing and Innovation in the NUI Galway Library. His primary focus is the strategy and a programme of work to enable Digital Scholarship in NUI Galway. Key areas for Cillian are technology, project/programme management, strategy, and interoperability. Prior to joining the Library, Cillian worked as Principal Technical Specialist and Project Manager on Strategic Solutions and Communications in ISS (NUI Galway’s central IT department) and previous to that for the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and External Affairs in NUI Galway. Before joining the University, Cillian worked for various Web development and technology companies in Galway.
Abstract:
As a partnership between NUI Galway and the Abbey Theatre, the Abbey Theatre minute books’ project succeeded because an academic requirement matched a Library objective. Library strategy encourages digital projects centred on collaboration and sharing. Which, for this work, resulted in an internal partnership between the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance, the Library, and the Marketing and Communications’ Office in NUI Galway.
The Abbey Theatre’s minute books cover the years when W.B. Yeats was active in the theatre’s management. The minute books begin in 1904, when he co-founded the theatre with Lady Augusta Gregory, and conclude in 1939, the year of his death.
This presentation outlines the Abbey Theatre minute books’ project narrative focusing on the leading and partnering role of the Library. It highlights how, by taking strategic and technical decisions, the Library enabled partner-lead collection management, transcription, metadata management, and marketing. Also outlined, is the role of the Library in delivering overall project management, technical direction, and leadership; The Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance provided leadership, content management, and transcriptions; and Marketing and Communications provided overall marketing.
For the technical, Library-driven methodology, each minute book was transcribed to an XML schema named Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). TEI is an accepted standard for representation of texts in digital form. The Library’s digital publishing platform allows users create and view manuscripts, along with other digital objects. This project involved uploading TEI and matching manuscript documents (the Abbey Theatre Minute Books). The digital collections’ platform allows research, library, and administrative users upload EXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSLT) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to transform and style the TEI as a Web page. The collection provides access to both the transcribed text and the original manuscript text displayed in a side-by-side searchable manner.
Ursula Byrne
University College Dublin
Biography:
Senior library manager in UCD. Works with the University Librarian to explore and enhance fundraising and facilities development. Contributes to the identification of initiatives of strategic importance to UCD Library, including the planning and incubating of projects for potential mainstreaming into overall Library service. Coordinates capital improvement projects, and projects for business continuity and recovery from disasters and other events that disrupt service.
Recent projects: development of the Irish Poetry Reading Archive; range of refurbishment projects that have modernised library spaces – including high quality, flexible learning spaces that increase visibility of, and access to, enhanced student support services.
Abstract:
This paper, using two examples of collaboration, will highlight the importance of, and the challenges around, building partnerships that support the university’s strategic initiatives – building engagement locally, nationally and internationally; and building partnerships.
External collaborations: In 2014/2015 UCD Library collaborated with a wide range of interested parties to develop and launch the Irish Poetry Reading Archive. This archive is a permanent repository of readings by Irish poets and writers in both the English and Irish languages, and it brings the voices of our poets together within a curated digital environment, ensuring their preservation for future generations. It is the only central repository for significant sound or video archives of readings of poetry by Irish authors. Achieving success required building trust and partnerships with a range of stakeholders – including Library teams, UCD academics, poets and publishers of poetry, Aosdana, Poetry Ireland, DLR, and Foras na Gaeilge.
Materials from the Irish Poetry Reading Archive, now integrated into the School of English Drama & Film s teaching programme, provide critical support for the teaching of the UCD Contemporary Irish Writing programme (ENG 10130), while also supporting the students in engaging with the poets and their work, and it is particularly useful both for classroom work, and out of class work.
Internal collaborations: Using an increasing emphasis on library exhibitions, UCD Library is working closely with the academic community and donors to showcase, interpret and profile our collections, making them visible within the space, and online via our library website.