The HardiBlog

It is not often that a digital tool does what it says on the tin in a simple, user-friendly way. This blog post is a shout-out to the Bulk Rename Utility - an unsung friend to digital archivists and other information professionals.  Using the Bulk Rename Utility for the Kerby Miller Collection In early 2023, the University of Galway Library digitised the Kerby Miller Collection . Over ten weeks, more than 150,000 pages were scanned to hi-resolution .tif format and filed digitally to mimic the physical arrangement of the collection – 125 boxes, 1,491 subseries and 1,729 folders. During the digitisation process, folder and file name barcodes were used to track progress and support the digitisation workflow. While essential for this use case, the barcodes must be removed for long-term digital preservation and archival intellectual control.  The Library has developed internal guidelines for file and folder naming conventions used across the Archives holdings that are in lin...

The University of Galway Library is leading a two-year NORF-funded project to align Ireland’s network of open access repositories' metadata standards with international best practices. The Project Board is comprised of experts from institutions across Ireland ( https://www.universityofgalway.ie/openrepositories/team/ ).  I joined the project as NORF Open Access Repositories Project Manager in June, when the project was already well underway. Twenty-nine repositories are registered for the Inventory of Open Access Repositories, comprising a range of institutions, including universities, colleges, schools, and government departments. You can view the complete list here: https://universityofgalway.ie/openrepositories/inventory/ .  A survey of institutional repositories’ metadata practices is now being analysed and will inform the work of the project board as the project progresses towards its first set of deliverables, due in December 2023, which includes the publication of an Ir...

In January 2021 Kerby Miller (Professor Emeritus of History for the University of Missouri) donated his vast research collection about Irish immigration to North America and Irish diaspora identities to the University of Galway. Miller’s collection ranges across multiple material types including (but not limited to) letter transcripts, original letters, photocopies of original letters, memoirs, autobiographies, research notes, research correspondence and genealogical records. After decades of close reading for his own academic research, Miller’s choice to donate the materials to the University of Galway has been contingent on the promise that his life's work would be made digitally accessible to academic users and the public alike. A portion of the full collection is due to be released online in early 2024 and this article summarises some of the key stakeholders, methodologies and goals that have guided the project thus far. Letters Home  The bulk of the collection comprises person...

  In this Open Voices conversation, we are talking to members of the AGAPE team who have just won the ENLIGHT Open Science Award for their project!   The AGAPE project is an autonomous Early Career Researcher (ECRs) led open science resource and community developed for open science enthusiasts, with a specific focus on ECRs. They initially met during the " Opening Doors " programme (funded by the Horizon 2020 EU programme for Research and Innovation). Through the various activities of the Opening Doors programme, participants had the opportunity to get to know one another and explore a shared passion for Open Science. The collaborative nature of the program allowed to work together, exchange ideas, and witness the positive impact of their collective efforts. Inspired by their experiences and the meaningful collaborations fostered during the Opening Doors program, participants were motivated to continue their teamwork and pursue Open Science activities after graduating. It wa...

The Library's  Reading List Service  is  a one-stop teaching support service for academic staff. We are now preparing for the next academic year. When you use our service we will:  prioritise your course materials  order required books/e-books request chapter and article digitisation  provide direct linking to the list from Canvas Training We are providing in-person  training sessions  to assist lecturers in publishing reading lists on the Reading List Service for the new academic year.  Alternatively lecturers can use the resources provided on our Reading List Page Existing Reviewing List Owners We request that existing Reading list owners update their current lists by Friday July 14th . This will provide enough time for new books to be ordered and to be available for the new academic year.  Further Information More information about using our  Reading List Service   including user guides, videos and training is availabl...

Today we are talking to Malavika Legge about the future of Open Access publishing. Malavika is Program Manager for OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association). Hardy: Hi Malavika, nice talking to you! Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at OASPA? Malavika : Sure, thanks, Hardy. I started my career at a very big publishing organisation. I was working for a division called Informa Health Care , which belongs to Informa, the company that also owns Taylor and Francis. I was working mostly on journals, but also on books, databases and encyclopedias. I then moved to the Biochemical Society , leading on the journals programme for this self-publishing learned society. Since 2012, first at Informa and then also at the Biochemical Society, my focus has gravitated towards Open Access: How can a meaningful, reasonable, fair transition to Open Access be enabled from the publisher's side? And while I was at the Biochemical Society, I helped to form the Society...

In this post we are hearing from Ronán Kennedy, Head of Collections in University of Galway Library about the very current #ebookSOS campaign and its background.     #ebookSOS began in 2020 as a movement in the UK when Librarian Johanna Anderson consistently encountered obstacles when trying to provide ebook access for a new course at her institution. Momentum quickly gathered throughout the UK and internationally as more and more institutions were encountering the same issues across the academic publishing sector. A very brief explainer on YouTube can be found here . The main aim of #ebookSOS is a call to investigate the provision of and pricing of titles in the academic ebook market. The current poor business practises from publishers create bad faith and a lack of trust and confidence among stakeholders such as libraries, patrons and faculty. The campaign has gathered significant support internationally, with libraries, universities, academics, student unions, and ...