UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive Working Papers
Permanent URI for this collection
The IVRLA is a digital Humanities and Social Sciences repository, which draws on the extensive resources of archival and rare material held in University College Dublin, and allows researchers to access this material in a digitised format, from a single virtual location. The material is arranged in curated collections which can be browsed or searched.
Please visit the official website for more information.
Browse
Browsing UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive Working Papers by Title
Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- PublicationAustin Clarke at the Poetry Ireland LibraryThis paper reports on research into Austin Clarke’s personal library which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. Austin Clarke (1896-1974) was a major Irish poet and his personal library forms a large part of the 5,000 volumes that comprise the Poetry Ireland Library which is now housed in UCD Library Special Collections. Clarke’s library offers fascinating insights into the intellectual life of mid-twentieth-century Ireland and into specific textual influences on Clarke’s own work. The research project focused on the issue of cultural production and the influence of international literature and literary criticism on such production. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. This project did so through highlighting Clarke’s activity as a professional reviewer and the diversity of his personal library (both of which demonstrate an intense engagement with a wide range of literary genres, cultures, languages, and periods) as well as by holding a symposium on transnational elements in Irish poetry. The paper additionally reports on the process of selecting appropriate outputs for digitisation (a selection of Clarke’s reviews together with visual representations of the reviewed volumes as well as a provisional shelf list of Clarke’s library and a selected list of his reviews and essays) and suggests directions for further research.
571 - PublicationChanging Ireland : cultural heritage and migration(UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive, 2010)
; ; ; ; This paper reports on the Cultural Heritage and Migration project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project, undertaken from September to December 2009, has two separate strands: Schools’ Folklore Scheme 2009/10 and Migration to Ireland 2009/10. Both strands take as their starting point key surveys by the Irish Folklore Commission (in 1937-38 and 1955 respectively) and seek to gather comparative information in today’s very different Ireland, focusing on a society that is more urban, multicultural, and rapidly changing. The methodology and focus necessarily differ substantially from the earlier surveys, being influenced by debates and issues in the ethics of information collection as well as the need to reflect a more heterogeneous society. The project's online collection gives the background for both strands (including sample scanned material from the 1937-38 Schools’ Survey) and provides documentation in relation to the planning, design, and training phase. Due to time constraints, it was not possible to digitise the actual survey responses but this pilot project is being continued by the UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies and further research outputs, including digitised text for the schools’ strand and digitised audio for the migration strand, will be made available on their website. This paper gives an overview of the context for both strands, outlines the survey design phase, details the work done in collecting material, and discusses the complex ethical issues which arose in relation to the migration strand (where respondents were particularly vulnerable). The paper concludes by describing how the two surveys undertaken by this project will be made available online and discussing the possibilities for future research.830 - PublicationThe Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science Catalogue(UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive, 2010)
; ; This paper reports on the Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science research project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The remit of these projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. This project, which was undertaken in collaboration with the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, created a complete contents catalogue of the Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science from its establishment in 1832 up to the end of 1949, thus opening up the journal as a source for medical historians who are developing an analytical and contextual approach to their subject. The research paper outlines the history and significance of the journal, describes the process of designing the catalogue, and explains the issues encountered in completing the work. The paper also provides a detailed section explaining how users can conduct searches in order to find the material required. It is hoped that this project will develop a further interest in the history of Irish medical publications and the paper concludes with suggestions for how this project could be developed in the future.570 - PublicationFolk musicThis paper reports on the digitisation of the folk song and music collected by Tom Munnelly which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. Between 1971 and 2007, Tom Munnelly recorded over 1,500 tapes (over 20,000 songs) of folksong, folk music and folklore, the largest collection of traditional song compiled by a single individual in Ireland. This research project set out to digitise the first year of this collection, which is held on reel-to-reel tape and therefore is at significant risk of obsolescence and deterioration, in order to preserve this important material and make it more widely available. The remit of these projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. This project fulfilled this remit by digitising over 1,100 individual songs and instrumental pieces, creating a detailed catalogue to aid further research, and making a sample of the digitised pieces available online. The paper reports on the stages of the project, discusses the technical and ethical issues encountered, gives an overview of the material digitised, and highlights the urgent need for this digitisation work to be continued in order to preserve this valuable collection.
407 - PublicationFolklore school gamesThis paper reports on the Folklore School Games project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project, which was inspired by the example of the 1937-38 Schools’ Scheme (a comprehensive survey of folklore, including games, collected from schoolchildren throughout Ireland which is held in the National Folklore Collection at UCD), was undertaken from October to December 2009 and collected contemporary accounts from children of games they play. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. This project does so by presenting outputs of the research as a digital collection of image and audio files, and specifically links the 2009 project with the earlier work by including scanned extracts relating to children’s games from the 1937-38 scheme. The paper gives an overview of the project aims, details the planning and conduct of the fieldwork, reports on the material collected and digitised, and concludes by suggesting ways in which this research could be further developed.
530 - PublicationFolklore schools 1937-38This paper reports on the Folklore Schools 1937-38 project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The purpose of this project was to begin to catalogue, number, and conserve the primary school copybooks entrusted to the National Folklore Collection under the 1937-38 Schools’ Scheme, a nationwide scheme which encouraged sixth class students to write essays on varied folklore topics over an eighteen-month period. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. This project fulfils this remit by making available a catalogue (in excel format) containing details of all the copybooks examined during this project as well as provisional details of the remaining copybooks in the collection. Sample scanned material also acts as a capsule exhibition for the many thousands of copybooks submitted from children across Ireland. The paper gives an overview of the 1937-38 Schools’ Scheme, details the work involved in creating the catalogue and conserving the copybooks, and concludes with suggestions as to how further cataloguing and digitisation work could facilitate greater access to this significant national resource.
963 - PublicationGeorgian Dublin : architecture and the built environmentThis paper reports on the digitisation and cataloguing of photographic slides of Dublin’s Georgian architecture which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy have a library of photographic slides taken between 1978 and 2005. While these had previously been used for School teaching purposes only, they were long recognized as a potentially significant resource for students of Irish architecture in general. It was decided for this project to digitise and catalogue a sub-set of 200 images which specifically concentrated on Dublin’s Georgian architecture. These have been presented as two different collections of 100 images each: “Domestic Architecture of Georgian Dublin” and “Civic and Ecclesiastical Architecture of Georgian Dublin.” The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials, but could also present material in new ways and suggest possibilities for further research. This project did so by providing two properly constituted and curated collections which then allowed the UCD School or Art History and Cultural Policy to contribute these images and related metadata to the worldwide ARTstor resource. As a result of this project, further images have been identified which will also be digitised, catalogued and contributed to ARTstor. The paper additionally reports on the process of selecting appropriate slides for digitisation, assembling and entering the metadata, and gives an overview of specific features of the collections and their research potential.
895 - PublicationIreland Life-WritingThis paper reports on the Ireland Life-Writing project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project focused on the material that had been collected by an earlier and still ongoing project, the Ireland Life-Writing Archive, which is administered by the UCD School of English, Drama and Film. The scope of the IVRLA phase of the Ireland Life-Writing project was to take the material submitted to date to the Ireland Life-Writing Archive (which had not been fully catalogued due to shortages in funding), complete the cataloguing of it and make a list of these submissions available through the IVRLA. This paper gives an overview of the project context, procedures followed, the final output, and reports on the material collected and digitised, and concludes by suggesting ways in which this research could be further developed.
151 - PublicationThe Irish builder and engineer catalogueThis paper reports on the Irish Builder and Engineer research project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The remit of these projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. The Irish Builder and Engineer, which commenced publication in 1859 and survived under various titles until 1979, is a key resource in understanding the development of the Irish building and engineering trades. This project, which is the first phase of a long-term project, created a complete contents catalogue of the journal from 1890 to 1914, thus facilitating academic investigation into the history of engineering, construction and sanitary science in Ireland as well as into the history and content of The Irish Builder and Engineer itself. The research paper outlines the history and significance of the journal, describes the process of designing the catalogue, and explains the issues encountered in completing the work. The paper concludes with suggestions as to how this project could be developed in the future.
747 - PublicationIrish famineThis paper reports on the Irish Famine project which continues the work done under the National Famine Commemoration Project (1996-99) and was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The principal investigators on the National Famine Commemoration Project were Mary E. Daly and Cormac Ó Gráda from UCD and David Dickson and David Fitzpatrick from Trinity College Dublin. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. Hence, the focus of the current IVRLA research project was on collecting the data from the earlier project into a form that can be easily accessible through the IVRLA. The original project covered workhouses in eight Poor Law unions; this project drew from original research reports for four of those unions (Ennistymon, Inishowen, Parsonstown, and Rathdrum) which had been compiled and researched by Andrés Eiríksson and Catherine Cox. Original data collected directly from the workhouses has been made available, together with tables and graphs analysing that data. This paper gives an overview of the sources from which data was collected for the original project, details the work done in creating the resource provided by the current IVRLA project, and offers a brief commentary on each of the four unions that have been dealt with as part of this project. Finally, it suggests ways in which this research resource could be further developed.
651 - PublicationIrish women writers of children's literature 1870-1940This paper reports on research into Irish women writers of children’s literature which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The research focuses on the period from 1870 to 1940 and uses both the Manning Collection of children’s books in UCD and the Máirín Cregan papers at the National Library of Ireland. The report focuses on the issue of creating a virtual space for the specific consideration of children’s literature written by women – a space which has been created by the project’s online exhibition collection of extracts from relevant writers and useful reference material. The issues encountered in selecting material for this collection are considered and contextual information is provided for each of the writers featured in the project (Máirín Cregan, May Crommelin, L.T. Meade, Rosa Mulholland, and Katharine Tynan). In addition to the creation of an online space, the project also aimed to stimulate debate in the more traditional space and did so by arranging two events: a workshop for children which showcased work from some of the digitised IVRLA material and related it to contemporary children’s literature, and a symposium on Irish children’s literature. This paper reports on these two very successful events and suggests directions for further research in this field.
843 - PublicationJoyce's DublinThis paper reports on research into the Dublin in which James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” is set. The research was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The remit of these projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. This project did so by creating a series of podcasts based around the short story and the place and time in which it was set. These podcasts integrated academic analysis, discussion of Joyce resources, performance of significant music from the story, and description of the city space in which Joyce’s story took place. These have all been made available through the IVRLA, as have the full interviews (with transcripts) on which the podcasts are based and an extensive list of resources on Joyce and the Dublin which featured so strongly in his writings. The report outlines the approach to the project, documenting the extent and nature of the collaborative process involved, and the resources used and produced over the span of the project. It concludes by considering ways in which this and similar projects may be developed in the future.
254 - PublicationMaterial culture of the Mendicant Orders in Ireland pre-1829This paper reports on the material culture of the Mendicant Orders in Ireland pre-1829 project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project, undertaken from July to December 2009, continues the work done under a major project conducted from 2004 to 2008 and funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS). The original project, whose main objective was to create a full inventory of portable objects pre-dating catholic emancipation in the possession of the mendicant orders in Ireland, identified 422 such liturgical objects. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials but could also present material in new ways and suggest themes for further research. Hence, the focus of the current IVRLA research project was on completing the data entry from the earlier project, reviewing all data for accuracy, considering security and technical issues, and making material accessible through the IVRLA. This paper gives an overview of the historical context of the mendicant orders in Ireland, details the work done (under both phases of the project) in creating the resource now provided by the IVRLA project, comments on the complex heritage management issues raised by the cataloguing of these objects, and suggests ways in which this research could be further developed.
506 - PublicationPostgraduate education projectThis paper reports on the Postgraduate Education research project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project was born from the need to connect the IVRLA digital resource more closely with its target audience of students, researchers, and teachers. Three target groups were identified within the UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies: doctoral digital humanities students, general postgraduate students, and lecturers of undergraduate students. These three target groups are representative of academic institutions elsewhere and the materials developed for these groups will therefore be applicable to users throughout Ireland and internationally. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials, but could also present material in new ways and suggest possibilities for further research. This project does so by making available seminars, sample exercises and a seminar blog, all of which demonstrate how the digital resources contained within the IVRLA may be applied by teachers and researchers. The paper outlines issues arising from the proliferation in and use of digital resources, explains the approach taken in the seminar materials, and discusses specific aspects such as metadata, copyright, and the design of digital research projects. Finally, it suggests ways in which this project could be extended by the development of teaching materials for specific groups and detailed modules in order to enhance the engagement of users with the IVRLA digital repository.
182 - PublicationReconstructing Irish science : the library of the Royal College of Science (1867-1926)This paper reports on research into the history and library of the Royal College of Science for Ireland which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The Royal College of Science for Ireland (RCScI) was established in 1867, a time when science was developing rapidly in Ireland and elsewhere, and remained in existence until 1926 when it was amalgamated with UCD; during this time it counted among its deans and professors some of the most illustrious names of the day (Sir Robert Kane, William Fletcher Barrett, Robert Galloway, and Walter Noel Hartley). This research project considers the history of the RCScI, concentrating how an examination of the book and journal collections that constituted the RCScI library can contribute to an understanding of scientific and technological education in Ireland. The key objective of this project was to examine and research the extant RCScI collection remaining in storage as well as making preliminary observations about the extent of RCScI material which had been transferred to the UCD library; this has been done by presenting select lists of RCScI books and journals. The project’s online collection includes sample material from the eleven subjects taught in the RCScI and the full text of the 1872 RCScI library catalogue; along with the lists of books and journals and figures of RCScI enrolment also provided, this represents a significant resource. This resource was supplemented by a public exhibition on the project as well as two externally published outputs. The paper reports on the stages of the project and the issues encountered, while also providing further historical information in its appendices and suggesting directions for further research.
589 - PublicationSpeeches of Seán Lemass as TaoiseachThis paper reports on the speeches of Seán Lemass as taoiseach research project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. From his appointment in 1959 until his retirement in 1966 Seán Lemass spoke about his plans and policies in a variety of public venues and to a range of different audiences, thoughout Ireland, Europe and the United States. These public speeches, which articulate his evolving thinking on economic and social policies in Ireland and on changing international relations, are an invaluable resource. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials, but could also present material in new ways and suggest possibilities for further research. This project did so by compiling a catalogue of Lemass’s public speeches and making this available through the IVRLA, thus providing a valuable resource for scholars of both politics and history. This paper gives an overview of Seán Lemass’s career, discusses the important features of his public speeches, explains the sources consulted, and reports on the process of designing an appropriate catalogue. It concludes with suggestions for how this and similar projects could be developed in the future.
680 - PublicationTowards 2016This paper reports on the Towards 2016 research project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project, which was undertaken in the context of the upcoming centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, surveys UCD’s archival holdings of 1916-related material in order to provide an understanding of the Rising itself and, in particular, its re-interpretation in subsequent years. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials, but could also present material in new ways and suggest possibilities for further research. In order to provide a resource that could facilitate research into the cultural, historical, and political resonance of the 1916 Rising, this project extensively surveyed and documented UCD’s 1916-related archival material, digitised a selection of this material, and created an online exhibition collection of the sample digitised material together with detailed resource lists of the complete material. The paper outlines the historical context of the 1916 Rising and its subsequent re-interpretation, discusses the work involved in surveying and documenting the archival holdings, details issues encountered in selecting appropriate material for digitisation, and provides an overview of the historical background of the material presented. It concludes with suggestions for how this and similar projects could be developed in the future.
1011