DRI Launches New Series on Using Digital Archives for Academic Research

About the Series

Access to brick-and-mortar archives has been limited due to COVID-19 restrictions, creating challenges for humanities researchers that rely on archival materials for their research. DRI is therefore hosting a three-part webinar series called 'Using Digital Archives for Academic Research' aimed at early career researchers that will showcase the rich research resources contained in digital archival collections from different Irish cultural heritage institutions. The first webinar in the series will focus on historical research, part two will highlight digital archives for geographical and archaeological research, and the final webinar in the series will be dedicated to social sciences research.

DRI Programme Manager Dr Lisa Griffith said of the launch:

We are delighted to be able to showcase some of the rich material which is housed in the repository through this series. The series highlights some material which is housed in locations now inaccessible because of the lockdown as well as a large amount of material which can only be accessed through digital collections. We hope that the researchers who use the repository’s collections in their research will consider applying for our Early Career Research award when it opens later in the year.

DRI is committed to supporting early career researchers through preserving and providing access to research data in alignment with the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) principles, supporting best practice in research data management and Open Research, and through promoting initiatives like the DRI Early Career Research. This award grants a prize to an original piece of research informed in whole, or in part, by collections deposited in DRI. In our first webinar in the series, last year's DRI Early Career Research Award winner, Dr Siobhán Doyle, will be sharing how the visual collections in the DRI informed her research as an early career researcher. 

Using Digital Archives for Historical Research

The first webinar in the series, 'Using Digital Archives for Historical Research', will take place on 23 Febuary 2021 at 15:00. Speakers will include 

• Dr Ciarán Wallace, Deputy Director (Public Engagement Lead) at Beyond 2022: Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury,
• Dr Siobhán Doyle, who will be sharing how digital materials from collections in the DRI and the Bureau of Military History have informed her historical research,
• and Tara Doyle and Stephanie Rousseau from Dublin City Library and Archives (DCLA) who will be highlighting DCLA digital collections like the Fáilte Ireland Tourism Photographic Collection and the Jacob's Biscuit Factory Archive. 

For more information and to register, please visit our events page. 

Image Credit: Fáilte Ireland. Donkey, County Donegal, Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor], Dublin City Library and Archive [Depositing Institution], https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.z0302m58r