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• Update on Third Country Directive
• Developing 4th Level Ireland
• One year at IUA
• Irish Universities Agree MOU with China Scholarship Council
• Attracting Talented Researchers to Ireland - New Brochure Launched
• Equal Opportunities for All - Implementing Equality at Third level
• Funding Success for expertiseireland.com User
• Launch of new joint IUA/IUQB Publication
• Belgian Royal Visit
• Dublin Meeting of the European Research Council
• New Role at HEA for IUA’s Siobhan Harkin
• Marie Curie Industry Academia Partnership Event
• Implementation of National Framework of Qualifications
• IUQB Conference
• Launch of Prospectus Survey on Higher Education
• Results of Inter University Equality Photo Competition
• UCD Library Implements Institutional Repository
• Diary Dates - IUA Meetings and Events 2008
• Contact the Team

UCD Library Implements Institutional Repository with the help of
Enovation Solutions

UCD Library and Enovation Solutions have completed the development of an open access institutional repository to collect, preserve and disseminate the full-text research outputs of researchers at University College Dublin.

The repository, which was built on the DSpace technology platform, was chosen by UCD Library because of its open source flexibility, successful use by other Irish universities, and the availability of local support from Enovation Solutions.

Leveraging their experience in the education sector, Enovation's development work included considerable changes to the main DSpace data fields and some specific enhancements to the DSpace website.

The Library is currently piloting the repository with the Schools of Economics, Geography Planning and Environmental Policy and the Geary Institute. They plan to officially launch it as a university-wide service later in 2008. Further application developments, which are scheduled to start in the New Year, will involve integrating the repository with the existing research management system at the library to allow for full data flow between the two.

This innovative development is part of a 3-year project initiated by the IUA Librarians' Group and part-funded through the Higher Education Authority Strategic Innovation Fund. The project will establish open access institutional repositories in all Irish universities by 2008, augmented by an Irish portal to discover and access Irish research outputs.

Rosalind Pan, head of electronic service development at UCD Library, explains the benefits of engaging with a services partner on the project: "The main advantage of engaging with Enovation Solutions was that we were able to get up and running fairly quickly without putting extra pressure on the Library systems team. We concentrated on administering the site and collecting the data while they focused on the development side of things."

Gary Mahon, sales director at Enovation Solutions also commented: "There is considerable evidence to suggest that making an institution's research output openly and easily accessible via a research repository leads to a higher levels of citation, thereby enhancing the reputation and visibility of the institution. DSpace facilitates this in an easy-to-use and cost-effective way. We are delighted that we had the opportunity to work with UCD Library on this project and we look forward to bringing other educational institutions on board with similar projects in the future."

(Left to Right): Front Row - Liam Cleere (UCD), Gary Mahon (Enovation), Carmel Norris (UCD), Jennifer Collery (UCD)
Back Row - Gavin Henrick (Enovation), Ros Pan (UCD), Lisa Ryan (UCD), David Gallagher (UCD)