Thursday, April 25, 2013

America Online

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) was launched this week, a resource with great potential for academic research.

There are already over 2 million digital objects from America's libraries, archives and museums in the collection.  It will continue to grow in terms of the quantity of objects in the collection and also the ways these objects can be filtered and presented.

From the site itself:
"The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. "
The use of open data and APIs will mean that the contents and collections can be further harnessed in the future to create new tools and methods of research.  Five related apps are already available from the DPLA site.  One of these allows cross searching of DPLA with Europeana, a similar initiative and portal for digital objects and collections from European libraries and museums.

The site itself has various built-in functionalities allowing the user to view collections by locationchronologically or to explore as exhibitions covering subjects such as the Great Depression and US Activism.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Extra Hours for Exams

The Library will have extended Friday & Saturday opening hours during May to accommodate students studying for exams.    

Fridays (May 10, 17 & 24) : 9am to 10pm
Saturdays (May 11, 18 & 25) : 10am to 5pm

1913 Lockout Display

To commemorate the centenary of the Dublin Lockout of 1913, Strumpet City by James Plunkett has been chosen for the One City One Book campaign.

We have on display in the Library a number of related books on the Dublin Lockout and the social and political conditions which led up to this historic event.

For more information on the book and a list of events running throughout April see the One City One Book website: http://dublinonecityonebook.ie/