A Digital Library of Core e-Resources on Ireland

Project start date: 2007-01 Project end date: 2008-12
This project fills a critical gap in the provision of research and learning resources in Irish studies. The content comes from an unparalleled grouping of collaboration - collectively the partners hold an unrivalled range of printed research materials that are simply not available to the academic community in such critical mass elsewhere. The project will make the resources in the partner institutions more accessible to a wider audience.
Methods usedCategory
2d Scanning and photographyData capture
Resource sharingCommunication and collaboration
IndexingData analysis
Desktop publishing and pre-pressData publishing and dissemination
DocumentationStrategy and project management
Image enhancementData structuring and enhancement
Record linkagesData analysis
Text recognitionData capture
Usability analysisStrategy and project management
preservationStrategy and project management
Collaborative publishingData publishing and dissemination
textContent types
Funding sources: 
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
Content types created: 
Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used: 
ABBYY FineReader, ProLector
Source material used:  
We have selected a cohesive collection of material drawing on three exceptional world-leading Irish Studies collections. Queen’s University: holds the large Hibernica Collection which has particular strengths for the period 1749 to 1814 in Irish history, politics and economics together with cultural studies and Anglo-Irish literature spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The Linen Hall Library: holds an extensive collection of journals and pamphlets, the digitisation of which will create an invaluable resource. The Robinson Library: has a remarkable collection of manuscripts and monographs, including the world famous Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, a copy of Benjamin Motte’s first edition dated 28 October 1726, with amendments and markings in Swift’s own handwriting. CELT the Corpus of Electronic Texts: brings a wealth of Irish literary and historical culture to the Internet. It has a searchable online textbase consisting of over 900 contemporary and historical documents from many areas, including literature and the other arts. The resource includes closed runs of journals with titles published in the 18th century through to the 20th. The political titles of the late 18th century comment on the many political upheavals taking place (locally and abroad), the importance and accuracy of empirical research in the 19th century is now recognised, and equally important are the small runs of literary journals that flourished in the early part of the 20th century. Current (in copyright) journals (approximately 50% of the project’s journal collection) also feature.
Digital resource created:  
Electronic library of material relating to Irish studies. Digitisation of over 100 journals, 205 monographs and 2,500 pages of manuscript.
Data Formats created: 
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Text file (TXT), XML
Metadata standards employed: 
Preservation Metadata (PREMIS)

Institutions affiliated with this project: 

UK HE institutions involved:
Queen's University Belfast
UK HE institutions involved:
JSTOR
Royal Irish Academy
Linen Hall Library
Armagh Public Library
CELT
Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive

Project staff and expertise: 

Principal staff member:Paul Ell, Deirdre Wildy
Other staff:Computing officer(s) / Technical supporter(s)
External expertise:


Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record
Author(s) of recordPaul Ell
TitleA Digital Library of Core e-Resources on Ireland
Record created2010-03-23
Record updated2010-03-23 14:34
URL of recordhttp://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2679
Citation of recordPaul Ell: A Digital Library of Core e-Resources on Ireland.
<http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2679>
created: 2010-03-23, last updated 2010-03-23 14:34