DIT Library Services hosted a very successful seminar, titled ‘Supporting Research’ on Thursday 4th October in the DIT FOCAS Institute.
Key note speaker, Ms Ann McSweeney, presented the findings of a recent survey of DIT researchers and the response of Library Services in providing new information resources and new services.
One such service is an online research archive or ‘institutional repository’. This will raise the profile of DIT research and individual researchers by showcasing the Institute’s research output, reaching out to a wider audience and connecting those with similar research interests. In particular, our own repository will enable DIT to join the national network of repositories in Ireland: http://www.irel-open.ie/
Mr Brian Gillespie gave an overview of repositories and their benefits, providing links to functioning examples elsewhere in Europe and the USA. Ms Niamh Brennan, Trinity College Library, addressed the main issues surrounding development of the TARA repository at Trinity College Dublin and Ms Yvonne Desmond described how a repository will work in DIT.
The emphasis throughout the presentations was on partnership – not only between researchers themselves but also between researchers and others in the Institute. Fittingly, therefore, much of the discussion following the presentations concerned means of finding the funds from various sources to develop our own DIT repository. Those discussions are continuing beyond the seminar.
The seminar presentations – including live links to many useful websites – are available here.
The seminar presentations – including live links to many useful websites – are available here.
