 |
||
Contents |
2002/2003
IASIL NEWSLETTER |
|
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.
.
In
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 biennal 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/PGIL
Literary
Director |
||