The HardiBlog

Access to British Library Newspapers, Part 6: Ireland, 1783-1950 is now available via the library catalogue. This new collection contains 80 titles all published in Ireland in the late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Below is a list of some of the key titles contained in this new collection: Connaught Patriot and The Galway American Irish Catholic and Irish Catholic and Nation United Ireland The Irish Nation and The Peasant An Claideamh Soluis : Fáinne an Lae and Dublin Penny Journal The Volunteer’s Journal Irish Felon Collection Development

 Open Voices Interview with Kris Meen In this interview, we hear from Kris Meen , Academic Skills Librarian at the University of Galway, about his views on Open Education and his current work on Open Educational Resources (OER) locally and within European initiatives. Hardy: To start off our conversation how would you define Open Education? Kris : Open Education opens up barriers that might exist to education otherwise. Famously, Open Educational Resources (OER) in particular in the North American context have reduced barriers of affordability to education by cutting down on the cost of textbooks. Open Education also brings down barriers in terms of what you can do with educational resources because a lot of the times they are mediated by open licenses. The Open licenses allow you to do what is sometimes defined as the Five Rs : Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute, Retain, Reuse. You give your education and your pedagogy some sort of superpowers in terms of the ways that you can s...

Global Sustainability is a key element of the Library Strategy 2021-2025 . In support of this theme the Library has subscribed to the ProQuest Sustainability E-book collection.  This is a collection of over 7000 e-books curated by experts to bring sustainability titles together. A particular strength of this collection is that the titles are mapped to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations .  Publishers include Springer, Taylor & Francis, Emerald Publishing, John Hopkins and many more.  The broad subject areas covered are: Environmental Conservation (2998 titles) Industry,  Energy & Technology (1552 titles) Business & Economics (1080 titles) Food & Agriculture (626 titles) Sustainable Cities & Communities (599 titles) Education & Humanities (284 titles) Health & Well-being (239 titles) Equity & Social Justice (213 titles) A selection of available titles are: Flames of Extinction Gray to Green Communities Le...

The Library has acquired full access to the House of Lords Parliamentary Papers, 1800-1910 This is an extremely important online collection detailing the workings of the British State and Empire during the nineteenth century and includes a great deal of Irish related content.  It supplements and enhances our existing access to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers 1801-2010 .  Previously unknown material has been made available such as statistical data, oral evidence, and letters and business papers relating to not only Britain, but also to the many parts of the world that were under British influence.  The total collection is made up of more than 38000 documents, totally some 2.1 million digitised pages.  Researchers now can: Explore a whole host of issues for the period including conditions of the mining industry (top right image) and the famine in Ireland (image below) Access the the accounts and papers, bills and reports of House of Lord commissioners and com...

The Library has acquired access to the  18th-Century Parliamentary Papers Collection 1688-1834 . This is a major new primary source of UK official documents for those involved in history and the social sciences. The collection covers the period from the Glorious Revolution in 1688 to the destruction by fire of Westminster in 1834.  It illuminates many aspects of eighteenth-century history, from the widespread use of automated workflow during the Industrial Revolution to the impact of the American Revolution. Social and scientific developments are also tracked from India's early colonisation to the famed creation of the longitude clocks by John Harrison. There is much reference to Ireland, particularly leading up to the Act of Union. There are a number of rich historical strands and sources included in this resource: House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century 1715-1800 Reports from the Committees of the House of Commons 1715-1801 House of Lords Sessional ...

Mar chuid den bhailiúcháin leabhar a bhronn Conradh na Gaeilge ar Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, tá roinnt foilseacháin ó pheann Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh, scoláire agus ollamh  ar fáil i Leabharlann Shéamais Uí Argadáin, (Bailiúcháin Speisíalta). (English version below)    Luathshaol agus oideachas Rugadh agus tógadh Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh (nom-de-plume 'Uan Uladh'; Agnes O'Farrelly ) in aice le Achadh an Iúir i gContae an Chabháin. Tar éis seal le Eoin Mac Néill mar múinteoir Gaeilge aici, bhain sí céim amach i gColáiste Ollscoile Bhaile Átha Cliath (An Ollscoil Ríoga), (BA 1899, MA 1900). Tuairim an ama chéanna. chaith sí téarma i bPáras ag staidéar faoi Henri D’Arbois de Jubainville, ollamh le Cheiltis sa Collège de France.   Oileáin Árann Thug sí cuairt ar Oileáin Árann don chéad uair sa bhliain 1898 agus d’fhan sí ar Inis Meáin i dteach an iascaire a bhí fágtha ag Synge díreach roimpi. Lean sí ar aghaidh ina dhiadh sin ag tabhairt cuairte ar an oileán chuile bhliain ...

The United States Open Access Mandate – what does it mean for us? Open Scholarship Librarian Hardy Schwamm comments on the recent US announcement of changes of Open Access policies of government-funded research.   Announcement of new US policy on Twitter     What happened? On 25 August 2022, the US White House announced an updated policy guidance on Open Access that will substantially expand public access to science. It requires that all US government-funded research to be made freely available to read immediately after publication. This means no embargoes would be acceptable. Federal research bodies need to implement the new policy by the end of 2025. What are the policy changes? Researchers in the US who publish papers based on federal funds currently have two options. They can either make an article Open Access on publication by paying an Article Processing Charge (APC) to the publisher (Gold Open Access). Or they can publish it in a subscription-based journal ...

  In our Open Voices series we are talking to Dr  Éamon Ó Cofaigh , who recently published the monograph “ A Vehicle for Change. Popular Representations of the Automobile in 20th-Century France ”. It is available from  Liverpool University Press  as an  Open Access Monograph  free to download (or as a printed copy for  £34.99).  We talked to Éamon about his book and about his experience of publishing a monograph Open Access. A Vehicle for Change book cover   Hardy: Éamon, thanks for talking to me and congratulations on publishing your book. Éamon : Thank you very much. Hardy: We will talk about what it is like to publish an Open Access Monograph, but first can you please summarise what your book is about? Éamon : Well, my book is based on my PhD thesis which I completed in 2015 and it's about how the automobile was and is consumed in France. I look at popular representations of the car and see how they evolved. For example, I look at m...