The HardiBlog

The Digital Tools for Research workshop series resumed in the second semester with Data Visualisation: Tableau , taught by Dr. Heike Vornhagen from the Data Science Institute / Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics. The workshop participants gained a solid foundation in data visualisation to understand the art and science behind transforming complex information into compelling visuals. For those who missed it, the recording is openly available on our YouTube channel . Slides and datasets used at the workshop are available for download from from GitHub . The programme for the rest of the semester is as follows. All workshops are ideal for beginners — no prerequisites required! Poster Design with Canva , 20 February Learn the essentials of graphic design principles to elevate your academic poster presentations. In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore the main concepts of effective design, learning how to transform research into visually engaging and informati...

As the research community prioritises open infrastructures, persistent identifiers (PIDs) are key in connecting research outputs, funders, institutions, and researchers. One significant recent step in this journey is transitioning and standardising Crossref Open Funder Registry funder data to Research Organisation Registry (ROR) IDs . ROR is an open, community-driven identifier system designed specifically for research organisations. ROR is much like ORCID for people or DOI for items or grants. ROR is already extensively used to identify organisations. However, along with Research Activity Identifiers (RAIDs), it is still considered one of the newer identifiers (5). In an Irish context, the Irish National PID Strategy (5) highlights the importance of using ROR. ROR IDs are highlighted as a key component in the National Action Plan for Open Research (8), which aims to enhance interoperability and transparency in the research ecosystem. The strategy recommends the adoption of ROR IDs ...

Since the summer, the Open and Digital Research Team in the Library have been testing and refining an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) pipeline. The Library’s OCR pipeline aims to convert scanned images of textual archival records into a format that is machine-readable, at scale. This is an especially important enhancement to the University’s digitised heritage collections, making its holdings more searchable and supporting diverse areas of research interest. The first test case for the pipeline has been the Irish emigrant letters taken from the Kerby A. Miller Collection, as published online to the Library’s Digital Collections and a standalone digital repository for materials relating to Irish emigrants to North America called Imirce . In December 2024, the first batch of OCR enriched material has been launched to both the Digital Collections and Imirce online, and further heritage collections are scheduled for processing in 2025.  What this means for users  The Digital ...

On Tuesday 3 December, the Imirce project team hosted a Collection Day for members of the public to donate new material towards the digital repository of Irish emigrant letters and memoirs. In a single morning the digital collection has been enriched with 400+ more letters that will be released online by February 2025. The Day The morning began with a welcome, introductions and some background about the Imirce project presented by Catriona Cannon (Head of Heritage Collections and Digitisation), Daniel Carey (Professor of English), Breandán Mac Suibhne (Professor of Modern Irish History) and Marie-Louise Rouget (Digital Archivist for the Imirce project). The donors then moved through a morning of interview sessions to review their donated letters, sign deposit agreements and take part in recorded oral history interviews. All donors were also given a tour of the digitisation studio, hosted by Brendan Duffy and Eimhin Joyce, giving them a peek behind the scenes to better understand and a...

The Academic Skills Team in the Library support the information and academic research needs of University of Galway Undergraduate and Taught Master’s students. We are Siobhán, Jane, Gabi, Regina and Mike and we would like to introduce you to the services and resources that we provide.  Our Service Supports Our team is responsible for delivering information literacy to the student body. One of the frameworks we draw upon to guide the delivery of our support is the CILIP Definition of Information Literacy: "Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to develop informed views and to engage fully with society” (CILIP 2018) We support the following broad learning outcomes: Finding, using and evaluating key information sources for students' academic work (e.g. books, journal articles, market reports, standards, theses, grey literature, websites) Identif...