The objective is to create and maintain a comprehensive online bibliographic database of references on Irish architecture, design, environmental planning and related areas including a directory of collections and sources of information of use to researchers and practitioners. The material referenced is available in the library collections of the two core partners.
The project originated in two separate electronic databases maintained locally at Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin. While these were being merged, preliminary steps towards standardisation were taken. A prototype Web database was designed and approximately 11,500 existing records were transferred. An inputting style manual was created and agreed by the core partners. A thesaurus of subject terms, capable of addition and modification, was also agreed and made available on the website. Extensive editing to eliminate duplication and inconsistency was carried out along with changes in the design of the website in response to user feedback, elicited face to face and through questionnaires. The latter were hard copy in the first instance and then a questionnaire was posted on the website. The addition of new records is an ongoing process which will be handed over to permanent library staff as part of the project’s exit strategy. Such material is, and will continue to be, identified by scanning current architectural and planning journals and books acquired for the universities’ libraries.
A Directory of Sources has been added. It points to and provides searchable information on major Irish collections relating to architecture, the built environment, environmental planning, conservation, and urban and regional development. Collection descriptions are based on RSLP’s collection description schema.
The previous RSLP Open Day in June 2001 helped spur the addition of a selection of images to the site.
The database, currently containing over 16,000 bibliographic records and over 20 collection descriptions, was formally launched in Belfast, 10 June 2002 and in Dublin, 19 June 2002.
Project Manager
Carol BardonTel: 028 9027 4525
Fax: 028 9038 2636
E-mail: C.Bardon@qub.ac.uk
Content: Gill Davenport
Last updated 3 July 2002