Help for Researchers

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The Library offers a range of supports for research, summarised below. 

Collections 

The Library contains 550,000 printed books, with the whole stock totalling around 700,000 volumes and searchable via the catalogue. There is a strong emphasis on electronic access and the University of Galway is a member of IReL, a nationally funded programme to acquire electronic content on a consortium basis. The Library provides access to over 100,000 electronic journal titles in full text and more than 400,000 electronic books. The Inter-Library Loans service offers access to information resources not held by the Library. 

Archives and special collections are also vital to the academic mission of the University. Areas of focus for archives are literature, theatre, film and the performing arts, and historical and political collections. Complementing the archives are special collections, whose particular strengths include folklore, Irish-language materials and travel literature relating to Ireland.   

Open Access Publishing 

The Library is a member of the IReL consortium which has agreements with more than 20 publishers to enable open access to articles published by corresponding authors at its member institutions at no further cost to those authors. The Open Scholarship Librarian can advise on how to benefit from these agreements and the journal titles they cover.  

The Library has also published over 14,000 of the University’s research outputs via its open access repository, ARAN, for which the Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian is the key contact, providing advice and guidance, and supporting researchers’ compliance with national, funder and institutional requirements related to open access publishing.   

Open Scholarship Services  

Open Scholarship is an umbrella term for a wide range of Open practices. The Library introduces researchers to the concepts of Open Scholarship through its website, via introductory talks or regular Open Scholarship Cafés and training sessions. The focus is on why Open Scholarship is important now, what funder and institutional policies expect and what benefits Open practices bring to researchers. The Library also offers introductory workshops and training on other pillars of Open Scholarship, such as Research Data Management or the responsible use of research metrics. 

Digital Scholarship and Digital Humanities 

The Library partners with staff and students to enable digital methods and tools for research across the university in all disciplines. This includes: 

• work on digital projects involving data, digital collections, exhibitions, archives, and collections as data
• help with digitisation, digital preservation, digital creation, and open publishing  
• workshops on developing skills with digital and open technologies 

 Current publishing platforms are:

Creative Technologies 

The Library MakerSpace supports research by providing tools and technologies which may otherwise be inaccessible. Training is offered in science communication, drone flying, 3D design and printing, and laser cutting. Researchers can also access the Adobe CC suite and use data analysis software on our high-powered PCs. For training opportunities and to reserve equipment, visit the MakerSpace website.  

Library Open and Digital Research Team 

Rosie Dunne, Research Services Librarian 
Trish Finnan, Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian 
Cillian Joy, Digital Library Developer 
Hardy Schwamm, Open Scholarship Librarian 

See Also:  University of Galway Research Community Portal