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Contents |
2002
IASIL NEWSLETTER |
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EIRData
In the first year
of the Princess Grace Irish Library EIRData Project we constructed
a website stocked with bio-bibliography information on some 4,500
Irish authors. This was launched by Dr. Mary McAleese, President
of Ireland, with HSH Prince Albert of Monaco on 7th October 2000.
In the second year we considerably augmented all eight regions of
the website. EIRData was named "Website of the Day" by The
Irish Times on April 24th 2001 and was nominated for the British Library
Association's Reference Work Award in the same month. By the end of
the current session we will have more than fulfilled the undertakings
set out in the original proposal for the three year pilot project. In
future additions and corrections will be made to the website on the
basis of commissioned work from numerous scholars, each in his or
her own field of expertise. This is very much in line with the undertaking
in our original proposal to recruit widely from the Irish-studies
community using Internet not only to supply, but also to compile,
bio-bibliographical information, commentary and quotations, along
with every other kind of material that makes up the hugely varied
contents of the website. . In
the forthcoming three-year funding period (2003-06), international
scholars will be invited to make revisions and additions in specific
areas - chiefly the A-Z author-records. These will be paid at the
statutary rate for research assistantships and consultancies at the
University of Ulster, excepting that the work will actually be conducted
at the contributor's location and forwarded digitally to the website
management. In
the current session we are starting with a limited number of commissions
on both the academic and the technical side of the project using funds
made available from savings within other areas of the Project costings.
IASIL members are herewith invited to submit ideas for improving any
area of the website that particularly interests them, especially the
author-records and the journals section. If your proposal fits in
with our own development plans you will receive a contract from us
for a longer or shorter spell of work on the subject specified. On
October 2002, the Princess Grace Irish Library will be hosting a symposium
entitled "The Irish Book Lover", conceived as a tribute
to the keepers of bibliophilic tradition in Ireland. This symposium
will bring together 18 invited publishers, librarians, collectors,
booksellers and literary historians to discuss the past and future
of the book in Ireland. Keynote lectures addressing major developments
and leading figures will alternate with more informal sessions recounting
personal experiences of the book-trade as well as the history and
character of remarkable collections.
The
symposium has been timed to coincide with the biennial reunion of
The Ireland Fund of Monaco, to be held this year on 4th-6th October
2002. Further details will be posted on the EIRData Bulletin pages
and the PGIL website as they emerge. The addresses are www.pgil-eirdata.org
and www.monaco.mc/pglib Bruce Stewart
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