An Introduction to the Digital Repository of Ireland at University College Cork (UCC) by interim director for DRI Lisa Griffith

1. An Introduction to the Digital Repository of Ireland
Wednesday 8 of March 2023
Lisa Griffith
Interim Director
l.griffith@ria.ie

2. What do we mean by ‘digital’?
Item A.
Artists' Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. (2021) Branding
Countess Poster 2016 files, Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor],
National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL), NCAD [Depositing
Institution], https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.5q485962v
Item B.
Artists' Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. (2021) The
Countess Poster by Jim Fitzpatrick, Digital Repository of Ireland
[Distributor], National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL), NCAD
[Depositing Institution], https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.x346ss06r

3. Digital Preservation
● Born Digital
● Digitised
● Reasons to digitise
● Access
● Preservation An Post. (2021) European Capital of
Culture - Cork City - City Hall, Digital
Repository of Ireland [Distributor], An
Post Museum and Archive [Depositing
Institution],
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.sb39n004d

4. Digital Preservation
Digital content is at risk from a variety of threats from bit rot
to digital obsolescence, speed of technological changes, to
version changes (British Library)
Bit rot, or data degradation, is the deterioration of digital
content over time.
‘Digital preservation is the active management of digital
content over time to ensure its ongoing access.’ (Library of
Congress)
DRI is a Repository for the long term preservation of digital
objects- digitised material and born digital content

5. Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI)
- DRI is a Repository for the long term preservation of digital objects- digitised
material and born digital content
- Core Trust Seal Certified
- Domain- specific: Culture, Heritage, Humanities and Social Science
- DRI is funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research,
Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) via the Higher Education Authority (HEA)
and the Irish Research Council (IRC)
- The path to ingest (or preserving in the Repository) is through Membership
- We have 47 members including UCC (and growing)

6. Creating balanced archives- DRI Community Scheme
Actively engages with Community Archive groups who have digital material that is
ready to be archived through our Community Archive scheme.
Winners to date:
Cork LGBT Archive Dublin Ghost Signs
Asylum Archive Cork Community Media Hub
The Elephant Collective Dublin Ghost Signs
Joe Lee Films Tulsk History Society Bray
Arts
Dublin Digital Radio

7. Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reuseable
F
A
I
R
Is the data easy for both humans and computers to find?
persistent identifier
rich metadata
indexed in a searchable resource.
Once the user finds the required data, can they access it?
mediated without specialised or proprietary tools or communication methods
provide the exact conditions under which the data are accessible
Can the data be integrated with other data?
formal, accessible, shared language for
knowledge representation
references to other (meta)data
Is the data reproducible?
adequate context
accurate and relevant attributes
clear and accessible data usage licence
detailed provenance
Adapted from Bishop, B. W., & Hank, C. (2018). Measuring FAIR principles to inform fitness for use.

9. What are research data?
[D]ata that are used as primary sources to support technical or scientific enquiry,
research, scholarship, or artistic activity, and that are used as evidence in the
research process and/or are commonly accepted in the research community as
necessary to validate research findings and results. All other digital and non-
digital content have the potential of becoming research data. Research data may be
experimental data, observational data, operational data, third-party data, public
sector data, monitoring data, processed data, or repurposed data.
CODATA, https://codata.org/rdm-terminology/research-data/

10. Research data can take many forms:
textual data
audio files
numerical tables
survey or questionnaire
responses
interviews (recordings,
transcripts)
images (born-digital or digitized,
moving or still)
geospatial information
content or thematic analyses
artists’ notes
genomic information
… etc!

11. How to Manage your
data
Use the Research Data Lifecycle to
create an overview of the potential
stages of work, actions required, and
roles that should be considered.
Find ‘How to practice Good Research
Data Management’ on our site:
https://dri.ie/research-data-and-dri

12. Richard Fitzpatrick. (2022) St. Kieran's
College, Kilkenny, Class Portraits and
Student Records Digitisation Project 2021,
Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor],
Royal Irish Academy [Depositing
Institution],
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.xg94xg33g
What might a research
collection look like?

13. Selection of new collections
•Photographs of Irish Jesuits in Hong Kong:
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.zs26b048g
•Fingal and the Fight for Irish Freedom:
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.hh646n74g
•Waterford City Maps
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.1g05v267s
Mr William Lyons SJ, Hong
Kong, Irish Jesuit Archives

14. Collections- Fáilte Ireland
Fáilte Ireland. (2020) Fáilte Ireland
Tourism Photographic Collection,
Digital Repository of Ireland
[Distributor], Dublin City Library
and Archive [Depositing
Institution],
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.pk0
2rr951-1
Nearly 15,000 images of twentieth
century Ireland
1967- Market Day, Galway City
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.v1194w41k

15. Archiving Reproductive Health

16. Sample items from Savita Memorial collection
Dublin City Library and Archive. Photograph of the
Savita Memorial, Digital Repository of Ireland
[Distributor], Dublin City Library and Archive
[Depositing Institution]
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.6d57cp71h

17. The Repository
- Website: https://dri.ie/
- Repository: https://repository.dri.ie/
Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository. (2020) Unveiled Horizons
(2017), Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor], Arts and Culture in
Education Research Repository [Depositing Institution],
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.nc58d875t

18. Repository functionality
- Citation tool for collections
- Takes ORCID id
- IIIF viewer
- Aggregate (add collections)
to Europeana
- Crowd-sourcing
transcription tool

21. Call for Early Career Researcher or Early Career
Professional for DRI Board
● Develop their skills and learn about governance
● Help shape the priorities and direction of DRI
● Make a contribution to the digital preservation and open research community in
Ireland
Closing date 24 March 2023: https://dri.ie/call-early-career-researcher-or-
early-career-professional-dri-board

22. Finally, why deposit your data with DRI?
● We embed FAIR practices in everything we do
● Your data will be discoverable with thematically and location-specific
collections from over 50 island-wide organisations
● We are actively engaged with European and Global data organisations
and projects
● We work closely with Researchers
● We are researchers too

23. Thanks!
Kilkenny Design Workshops. (2015) Kilkenny Cat symbol, Digital
Repository of Ireland [Distributor], National Irish Visual Arts Library
(NIVAL), NCAD [Depositing Institution],
https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.wp98d742b