The National Library of Ireland responded to the challenge of digital collecting by setting up a Digital Collections Department with a cross-disciplinary team. They took a pilot project approach to manage the full lifecycle of a special collection with different content types from 2017-2018. Digital collections at different stages of their lifecycle can inspire and support research. The library also started a web archiving program to preserve vulnerable Irish websites for future researchers since over 50% of web resources disappear within a year of publication. The goals of the program are to build an archive of politics, culture, social issues and government websites through themes and events, as well as archiving vulnerable sites.

1. Digital Collecting at the National Library of Ireland
Della Keating & Joanna Finegan, Digital Collections

2. A Spinning Jenny
Some Nokias
Change is not new

3. Because it’s there

4. Today
How did the NLI respond to the ‘challenge’
of digital collecting?
How do digital collections at different
stages of lifecycle (baby and toddler) inspire
and support research?

5. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

7. Trying and Failing
Digital is not
Different

8. Still trying

9. Time to Try Again and Fail Better
Digital is different

11. Walk this way: OCLC, not Run-D.M.C

12. Digital Collections Department
• Digital Collections Department set up
• Combined experience of librarians,
archivists & technical staff all
working together
• Pilot project approach

13. Pilot Project
• January 2017-May 2018
• Full collection management lifecycle
• From pre-acquisition to online
delivery
• Special collection with a range of
content types

14. Web Archiving at the
National Library of Ireland

15. Presidents

17. Within a year of publication,
50% of web resources are
gone or unrecognisable …
Lost to future researchers.

18. Web archive is a collection of web sites
gathered and preserved for
long term access and use

19. Web archive is a collection of Irish web sites
gathered and preserved for
long term access and use

24. Engagement =
More users + Greater Collaboration: researchers, publishers

25. Primary resources: 1,200 websites
• Politics
• Culture & creativity
• Social issues
• Government & the Irish State
Themes, events, vulnerable sites
NLI Selective Web Archive - content

26. Archived sites
• A-Z Browse list (+URL + Full Text)
• Library catalogue: links to archived sites
• Open access
Contextual information
• Scope & content for collections
NLI Selective Web Archive - discovery

27. 2011 2015 2016 2017 2018
Born Digital – evolving

29. Follow us:
Follow The National Library:
• Facebook @NationalLibraryofIreland
• Twitter @NLIreland
• Blog.nli.ie
Visit us:
http://www.nli.ie/en/collections-
digital.aspx

30. Any Questions?
Illustration from “Digital Preservation Business Case Toolkit Http://
dkeating@nli.ie
jfinegan@nli.ie

31. Slide 2 Spinning jenny, Ralph Malan, Flickr cc-by 2.0
Slide 2 Nokia image;Red at English Wikipedia CC 3.0
Slide 3 Everest from Gokyo Ri, 2012 cc-by SA 3.0 Rdevaney
Slide 5 http://data.theeuropeanlibrary.org/Collection/a0142
Slide 6 Hobbit post taken by Jakarta Fail on Flickr cc-by 2.0
Slide 8 Illustration from “Digital Preservation Business Case Toolkit
Http://wiki.dpconline.org/ CC BY- NC 3.0
Slide 11 Ethan Hein, Flickr Run DMC cc-by 2.0
Slide 11 Erway, Ricky. 2012. You’ve Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for
Managing BornDigital Content Received on Physical Media. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC
Research. http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2012/2012-06.pdf.
Slide 11 Dooley, Jackie. 2015. The Archival Advantage: Integrating Archival Expertise
into Management of Born-digital Library Materials. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC
Research. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2015/oclcresearch-
archival-advantage-2015.pdf.
Slide 24 Brügger, Niels, and Ralph Schroeder, editors. Web as History: Using Web
Archives to Understand the Past and the Present. London, UCL Press, 2017.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/the-web-as-history
Slide 27 RLUK, 2014. Unique and Distinct Collections: opportunities for Research
Libraries. http://www.rluk.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/RLUK-UDC-Report.pdf
Slide 28 Dogwood52week16 by Greg Clarke (looking back towards Carndonagh)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/leppre/33261763433/ (CC BY 2.0)