The HardiBlog

Access to ScienceDirect and Scopus is down at the moment for all global users due to maintenance of their system. They hope to have access restored later today. UPDATE: ACCESS TO BOTH PRODUCTS HAS BEEN RESTORED [18:00 25/08]

The Balfour Album of photographs was originally created in 1893-1895 by the Belfast photographer, Robert John Welch. It was a gift to the former Chief Secretary for Ireland, Arthur J. Balfour in recognition of his support for the building of the Galway-Clifden Railway. The album was presented to Arthur Balfour in the summer of 1896, a year after the railway had opened. It remained in the property of the Balfour family until 1987 when the then Earl of Balfour offered to sell it to the National Library of Ireland. Staff at the National Library felt that it more properly belonged in Galway and it was accordingly offered to the Librarian of the James Hardiman Library who purchased it for the library's collection. The Album has been digitised by James hardiman Library Staff and is now available on-line at The Balfour Album On-Line

National Heritage Week runs from the 21st to the 29th August, and to mark the week the James Hardiman Library is hosting an exhibition based on the Balfour Album, a collection of photographs done by the Belfast photographer Robert J Welch between 1893 and 1895, and presented to the former Chief Secretary of Ireland, Arthur J. Balfour in recognition of his support for the Galway to Clifden Railway. It features scenes along the Railway, and will be augmented with other book and archival material from the Library’s holdings.

EAD (archives.library.nuigalway.ie) will be down from 17.30 Thursday 5 August until 11.00 am Friday 6th August. This downtime is necessary to facilitate essential hardware maintenance.

Aran will be down from 17.30 Thursday 5 August until 11.00 am Friday 6th August. This downtime is necessary to facilitate essential hardware maintenance.

WiFi - Downtime - Alert – Wednesday 4th of August In order to facilitate a firmware upgrade as part of the Library Wireless Upgrade Project please note that it is necessary to take down the wireless service at the James Hardiman Library for two hours as follows: Wednesday 4th of August from 17.00-19.00 We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Thursday 5th August 2010 Please note that the following services will be unavailable from 17.30 - 22.00 to accommodate necessary maintenance to campus IT infrastructure: E-Knowledge and Related Services (ARAN, Catalogue, Metalib, SFX) Please check Library Blog for updates