Postgraduate education project

Abstract

This paper reports on the Postgraduate Education research project which was conducted as part of the UCD Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) series of demonstrator research projects. The project was born from the need to connect the IVRLA digital resource more closely with its target audience of students, researchers, and teachers. Three target groups were identified within the UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies: doctoral digital humanities students, general postgraduate students, and lecturers of undergraduate students. These three target groups are representative of academic institutions elsewhere and the materials developed for these groups will therefore be applicable to users throughout Ireland and internationally. The remit of the IVRLA demonstrator projects was to provide digital research resources and to show how digital repositories could not only provide access to archival research materials, but could also present material in new ways and suggest possibilities for further research. This project does so by making available seminars, sample exercises and a seminar blog, all of which demonstrate how the digital resources contained within the IVRLA may be applied by teachers and researchers. The paper outlines issues arising from the proliferation in and use of digital resources, explains the approach taken in the seminar materials, and discusses specific aspects such as metadata, copyright, and the design of digital research projects. Finally, it suggests ways in which this project could be extended by the development of teaching materials for specific groups and detailed modules in order to enhance the engagement of users with the IVRLA digital repository.