Digital Local Studies Content in Irish Public Libraries:
: An Analysis and Overview

  • Kevin Murphy

Student thesis: Master's ThesisMaster of Economic and Social Studies

Abstract

The aim of this research was to provide an overview and analysis of digital local studies content in Irish public libraries today. There were five objectives: to provide an overview of the content including the formats; to explore the factors that influence the creation of digital content; to investigate the views of local studies staff towards digital content including training needs and perceived impact upon services; to discover the extent to which web 2.0 and library 2.0 are used in Irish local studies collections; and to explore future issues that may impact upon local studies and digital content. The literature showed that digitisation has resulted in change for local studies services, presenting them both with challenges and opportunities. This was no different in Ireland,
where national policy and developments in recent years encouraged the development of digital content by local studies services. A paucity of studies on Irish libraries and digitisation was revealed by the review of the literature. A mixed methods research design was adopted for this study. A coding schedule for a website content analysis was developed using the existing literature on evaluating digital content and website. This quantitative data collection method proved very effective at evaluating all Irish public library local studies library websites. A mixed methods questionnaire was circulated to all local studies librarians in Ireland. The quantitative and qualitative data received was gathered and analysed, along with the data compiled from the content analysis. The results of the website content analysis indicated that there were huge contrasts in the quantity of digital content available on the websites of Irish public libraries. Nearly a quarter had no digital content at all, while many other authorities had extensive digitised content up on their website. There was also much diversity in the formats of digital content online across all library authorities. The responses from the questionnaire partially explained this disparity, along with answering the other objectives of this study. It was evident from the answers given that local librarians recognize the need for increased digital content being made available. Various barriers and issues to digital content creation were also identified by respondents. The majority of respondents were in favour of increased national co-ordination. Training
requirements were also listed. The AskAboutIreland portal website was recognized as needing change, but offering potential for future projects
Date of Award2014
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Aberystwyth University
SupervisorSarah Higgins (Supervisor)

Cite this

'