The HardiBlog

Bill O'Herlihy is remembered first and foremost as a sports broadcaster but a tribunal report in the Official Publications collection in the Library documents his challenging earlier career as a reporter for the  7 Days programme, one of the first investigative journalistic formats produced by RTE. In November 1969 Bill O'Herlihy, as chief reporter, investigated the operation of moneylenders in the Dublin area. The programme was the first of its kind to use hidden cameras and more controversially an acted insert to give it dramatic and narrative structure. There were a number of contentious statements made within the programme and such was the impact and the ensuing controversy, that the Fianna Fáil government ordered a public inquiry into the 7 Days production.  These are Bill O'Herlihy's concluding remarks at the end of the  programme, reproduced in the Inquiry Report.  The claim of ...

In order to facilitate the migration of the Library Catalogue service under the Infrastructure Renewal Programme (IRP) the following Library services will be unavailable on Tuesday, June 2nd from 0930 to 1130: •                      Library catalogue including search option •                      Library website including search option •                      Library User Accounts •                      Real-time information regarding items on loan or their availability •                  ...

The Aleph database component of the Library Catalogue will undergo maintenance on Tuesday June 2nd from 0930 to 1130. The following Library services will be unavailable in order to facilitate this necessary maintenance. Real-time information regarding items on loan or availability Access to my library account Booking of group study rooms Placement of reservation requests Online renewal Book circulation including: Self Issue, High Use Books machine, and the book return machine Inter-Library Loans Ordering of books and journals online Our apologies for the inconvenience.

The database trial of Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present expires on Wednesday 03 June 2015 . Orlando provides entries on authors' lives and writing careers, contextual material, timelines, sets of internal links, and bibliographies. Access is available via: http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/aboutourcollections/databases/databasetrials/ Please complete the feedback form available from the link above if this resource is of interest to you.

Demo of the ScanPro 3000 Microfiche/Microfilm-machines Some features: Simplified, step-by-step loading On Screen instructions Searchability High-Resolution Images No messing with lenses- on screen control and many more easy to use new and improved features  Come along for a professional demo by the Supplier Thursday  28th of May @ 1030am  Please book you place to avoid disappointment Additional session can be arranged if requested Venue Microform Room  - located on the ground floor of the Main Library. Take a right when you enter the library and it's on the right just after the book returns area.

This multi-volume publication by Henry Charles Andrews (active 1799-1828) combined the botanical and artistic talents of its author, and its serial format facilitated easier access to such information for budding gardeners of the era. Its focus is centred primarily on the era’s recently discovered species. Verbascum ferrugineum , ex.: The botanist's repository, for new and rare plants (London : Printed by T. Bensley, and published by the author, 1797-1815) If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie. A spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the digital display wall in the Hardiman Foyer during the month of May.

The period which followed the Industrial Revolution brought with it nostalgia for the countryside and a growing interest in the natural world. Authors such as Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) were able to live comfortably off earnings from bestsellers such as The romance of natural history (London : J. Nisbet, 1862). The evidence of heavy use of our copy of The out-door world : or, Young collector's handbook by William S. Furneaux (London : Longmans, Green, 1893) is perhaps a testament to the clear illustrations and practical layout of this introduction to the natural world. Ferns, ex.: The out-door world : or, Young collector's handbook. If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie. A spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the digital display wall in the Hardiman Foyer during the mont...

18 May - 19 July & 17 August - 30 August     Monday - Friday:  08.30-17.30                       Saturday/Sunday:  Closed                              Library Closed :   June Bank Holiday (Monday 1st June )         20 July - 16 August   Monday-Thursday:  08.30-22.00   Friday:                       08.30-17.30   Saturday:                   10.00-17.00    Sunday:  Closed          ...

"The challenge facing all Irishmen and women today is to find a new vision." Thus began An Taoiseach, Jack Lynch's introduction to his party's referendum pamphlet on the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. This example of  election literature was recently found in a 1960's edition of the Irish Constitution where perhaps it was been cross-referenced with the complete text. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland lowered the voting age for all national elections and referendums in the state from twenty-one to eighteen years of age. More controversially the Fifth Amendment removed the State's recognition of the special position of the Catholic Church within Article 44.1.2 . These amendments were clearly seen as important changes for the nation and following the previous successful referendum on entering the EEC, represented a momentum for change. It is evident from An Taoiseach's message that this was see...

Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present is now on trial until 03 June via http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/aboutourcollections/databases/databasetrials/databasetrialfeedback/trialfeedback-orlando/

Hailed “with pleasure” by the Dublin journal of medical science as a work in which “a vast quantity of minute observation and discovery is revealed”, Flora Hibernica (Dublin : W. Curry Jun. and company, 1836) is acknowledged as the first comprehensive Irish flora. Its author James Townsend Mackay was director of the College Botanic Gardens in Dublin, having moved to Ireland from his native Scotland at an early age. Mackay's heath ( Erica mackaiana ) The work contains several contributions by the never published Cork botanist Ellen Hutchins, and includes an entry for Conferva hutchinsiae , now known as Cladophora hutchinsiae , a marine algae named in her honour. If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie. A spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the digital display wall in the Hardiman Fo...

This week in Some notes from nature you can view the groundbreaking work by Carl von Linné (1707-1778) Species plantarum : exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas (Stockholm : Laurentii Salvii, 1762-1763). Originally published in 1753, this seminal work collated for the first time botanical nomenclature for all known species and classified them into genera. It was the first work to consistently apply the binomial names so familiar to us today, and was the starting point for the modern naming of plants. If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie. A spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the digital display wall in the Hardiman Foyer during the month of May.

On display in Some notes from nature this week is Zoologia medicinalis Hibernica : or, A treatise of birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, or insects, which are commonly known and propagated in this kingdom : giving an account of their medicinal virtues, and their names in English, Irish, and Latin : to which is added, a short treatise of the diagnostic and orognostic parts of medicine by John K’Eogh (1681?-1754) . A work which expounds the medicinal virtues of Ireland’s C18th fauna, some of the entries might be quite surprising. (Dublin : Printed by S. Powell, for the author, and to be had at James Kelburn', 1739) John Rutty’s An essay towards a natural history of the county of Dublin , an attempt to document all instances of natural history of the city and county of Dublin, was the product of the Age of Enlightenment and an increasing interest in the natural world. If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the...

Do join the Special Collections team today for the last in the 2014-2015 lunchtime lecture series. Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington will look at a selection of early flora and natural history guides from Special Collections and ask what we can learn from them. All are welcome to the G011 Seminar Room in the Hardiman Building at 1pm.

This week on display as part of the Special Collections spotlight exhibition Some Notes from Nature is this visually stunning work by the artist, naturalist and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). The accuracy and realism of Merian’s depictions of insects in Erucarum ortus : alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis (Amstelaedami : apud Joannem Oosterwyk , [1717]) were fuelled by lifelong observation, and served to revolutionise entomological thinking. The illustrations depict the different life stages of moth and butterfly species from chrysalis to adult, along with their associated food plants. The work is here translated into Latin by her daughter and frequent touring companion Dorothea (1678-1745). If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie. A spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the ...

      Imagine, Create: A Gallery Talk on the pieces in the 'Dreaming Vessels' Exhibition   presented by   Mr Ambrose O'Halloran Chairman Galway Chapter Irish Woodturners' Guild   will take place   tonight at 19.00   in   Foyer, Hardiman Research Building     ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND THIS FREE EVENT   Please note that the Dreaming Vessels Exhibition has been extended to Friday 29th May 2015

In May 2014, NUIG beat DCU, UCC, Dundalk IT and TCD to become the first Intervarsity BioBlitz* champions. One year on, Special Collections celebrate the wonders and oddities of the natural world in a natural sciences spotlight exhibition. If you would like to view the spotlight exhibition, or to consult material in this vein, please contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie. The spotlight exhibition can also be viewed on the digital display wall in the Hardiman Foyer during the month of May. * Bioblitz = a 24-hour biological survey by scientists and recorders to see how many species are present in an area. A dried specimen of the rare wood millet grass ( Milium effusum ) alongside the more common matgrass ( Nardus stricta) , ex.: Concise notices of British grasses / David Moore (1808-1879) (Dublin : James McGlashan, 1850).

Do join the Special Collections team next week for what we hope will be a very inspiring talk as part of our natural sciences month. Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington looks at a selection of flora and natural history guides from Special Collections and asks what we can learn from them. All are welcome to the G011 Seminar Room in the Hardiman Building at 1pm on Wednesday May 6th. Laurus nobilis , ex.: Medical botany / John Stephenson. ( London : Printed for John Churchill, 1834-1836 )

      Imagine, Create: A Gallery Talk on the pieces in the Dreaming Vessels Exhibition   presented by   Mr Ambrose O'Halloran Chairman Galway Chapter Irish Woodturners' Guild   will take place on   Tuesday 5th May at 19.00   in   Foyer, Hardiman Research Building       ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND THIS FREE EVENT