Our Focus on Training and Education
Digital archiving and digital preservation are ongoing processes that benefit from shared standards and evolving best practice; they are community practices. As a hub for international best practice, engaging in and providing learning opportunities—from hands-on asset preparation through sharing collections with new audiences—is central to our work. The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) team is committed to ensuring that members are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to play their part in providing sustained access to digital objects. In addition, we organise regular events that draw attention to the richness of these resources and instruct end users in how to find and use them. As a trustworthy digital repository that provides online access to digital resources, educational events in the areas of digital preservation, open science, and more, are central to DRI’s work in the development of policy, and our advocacy for best practice in these areas.
The DRI team is committed to ensuring that staff engage in continuous professional development; all DRI staff members have completed the Hibernian Training Delivery and Evaluation Course QQI Level 6 or hold an equivalent training qualification in higher education.
What We Provide
We invite you to explore the published resources, user guides, and videos on topics related to digital preservation, navigating the DRI Repository, and preparing collections for the Repository. These resources are systematically reviewed, added to, and updated by the DRI team and we welcome your suggestions. We also welcome DRI members and our wider communities to engage with our programme of training and educational events and the DRI Early Career Research Award.
Online Introductory Training Workshops for New DRI Members
All new members of the DRI are invited to join the DRI team for an online training workshop entitled ‘DRI Member Training - Introductory Level’. These workshops cover the following topics:
- A tour of the DRI Repository, including how collections and sub collections are organised
- The basics of using the Repository
- Collection creation and single object (simple) ingest
- Reviewing and Publishing in the Repository
- Metadata and the DRI Metadata Template
- Licensing and copyright
In addition to new members, all DRI members may join these sessions at any time for a refresher, or in the event of a new staff member joining their organisation.
Each workshop also incorporates time for questions and answers. These sessions are recorded and the recording is sent out to attendees afterwards.
Registration details for each training workshop are sent to the DRI Members mailing list, in advance of the next session. You can ensure you have been signed up to the numbers mailing list, or request to be signed up, by emailing members@dri.ie
Online ‘Live Assistance Sessions’
All DRI members are welcome to join the DRI team for our online ‘Live Assistance Sessions’. Each session is one hour long, and the purpose is for DRI members to meet the DRI team online and ask any questions relating to the digital preservation of your collections. It’s informal and there’s no agenda; we just take questions as they come up. It can also be a good opportunity to listen and learn from the questions and issues raised by other members.
Registration details for each Live Assistance Session are sent to the DRI Members mailing list, in advance of the next session.
Additional Training Workshops
In addition to our core programme of practical Repository training sessions, DRI organises ad-hoc training workshops in other areas relating to digital archiving and digital preservation. These sessions will be advertised to all DRI members via the DRI Members mailing list.
Though the DRI team runs training workshops and live assistance sessions at regular intervals, and endeavours to hold additional sessions when there is particular demand, it is possible that the timing will not suit you. Therefore, the team has created a number of additional resources, listed below, which we invite you to explore and use at your own convenience.
DRI Publications
The DRI Publications collection offers an array of helpful resources, including:
- Guidelines on preparing metadata, ingesting collections, and transferring files.
- Reports issued by DRI as outputs of various projects and activities.
- Factsheets and ‘How to DRI’ series outlining the process of ingesting collections into DRI.
- Policy documents published by the DRI.
You can find persistent versions of these resources in the DRI repository, under the ‘Digital Repository of Ireland Publications’ collection.
Resources on Research Data Management and the DRI
Rigorous data management is increasingly required by research grants and government funders, while long-term digital preservation of research data generated by higher education institutions and research centres is an essential part of Open Access and the FAIR data principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. DRI provides assistance to researchers to archive and preserve their research outputs in line with the FAIR principles. Find out more on our Research Data Management page.
DRI User Guides
DRI has developed Guides to assist our members with navigating and depositing in the repository.
The DRI ‘User Manual’ focuses on navigating the repository, covering:
We also have a ‘Depositor Manual’ that provides guidance on areas such as:
- The Data Life Cycle
- User Roles
- Organising your Collection
- Creating Collections
- Depositing Data
- Editing
- Reviewing and Publishing
DRI Training and Event Videos
DRI’s training videos cover the same material that is included in our live online training workshops. They allow you to learn about each step of the process of depositing to DRI at your own pace and in your own time.
A DRI Repository Walkthrough (22.13 mins)
A walkthrough of the DRI repository, with a particular focus on the collections of 'Digital Preservation of Reproductive Health Resources: Archiving the 8th' (Archiving Reproductive Health). The video takes us directly into the Repository to explore the collections, a taster of what they include, how to navigate them, and the metadata presented from the Repository from a user perspective.
DRI Repository Walkthrough from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Appraising Your Collections for the DRI (14.20 mins)
Video on appraising collections for DRI including: how DRI collections are structured; digitisation principles; and a Repository walkthrough of different types of collections.
Appraising your collections for the DRI from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Your DRI Account, Your Workspace and User Roles (10.40 mins)
Video on Repository basics, including the Repository account, the Workspace, and user roles within the Repository.
Your DRI account, your Workspace and user roles from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Introduction to Metadata (11.46 mins)
Video on an introduction to metadata including:
- What is metadata?
- Why use standardised and structured metadata?
- Dublin Core and example records
Introduction to Metadata from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
A Walkthrough of the DRI Batch Metadata Template (8:03 mins)
A walkthrough of the DRI Batch Metadata Template. This is a template with Qualified Dublin Core compliant fields. The worksheet allows users to input bulk metadata which can be easily transformed to ingest-ready XML.
A walkthrough of the DRI Batch Metadata Template from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Creating Collections in DRI (7.26 mins)
Video on creating collections in DRI, into which objects will be deposited.
Creating Collections in DRI from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Creating Objects in DRI (6:15 mins)
Video on creating objects on the Digital Repository of Ireland by adding metadata and depositing the asset that is going to be preserved.
Creating Objects in DRI from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Anonymisation (4:30 mins)
A brief overview of an anonymising process, and what needs to be taken into account when anonymising data – particularly when this is being done for deposit in the DRI Repository.
Anonymisation from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Introduction to Data Protection (11:46 mins)
An introduction to data protection for archivists, as part of DRI Introductory Training. Six steps for archivists to follow when preparing data for deposit in the Repository, in order to meet GDPR responsibilities.
Introduction to Data Protection from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
The Review and Publish Process in DRI (6:34 mins)
Overview of the review and publish process in DRI, explaining the next steps after you have ingested a draft object on DRI.
The Review and Publish Process in DRI from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
Copyright and Licensing in Digital Environments (14:33 mins)
Video on copyright and licensing and DRI including common terms; what is copyright?; copyright law in Ireland; copyright and digital content; open access; licensing and public access; public domain; and ancillary rights.
Copyright and licensing in digital environments from Digital Repository of Ireland on Vimeo.
The blog post ‘A Conversation about Open Access to Online Collections’ is also a useful resource on the topic of open licences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Frequently Asked Questions videos look at common issues for Repository depositors and users, in under 3 minutes:
- How do I add a non depositing organisation to my collection?
- This material is restricted data. How can I access it?
Part of the DRI’s educational strategy is delivered through a programme of live educational webinars. Recordings of past webinars can be found in the DRI Event Videos collection. These cover a range of topics including using digital archives for academic research; publishin FAIR data; rapid response web and social media archiving; archival activism and community archiving; and research data management, among many others.
Online and In-Person Training and Education Support
The DRI offers its members online and in-person training. Details of upcoming training initiatives are distributed to DRI members by the DRI team.
Our educational programme of webinars is open to the public, with the details being advertised via our News and Events pages.
The DRI Early Career Research Award
DRI is committed to supporting early career researchers through initiatives like the DRI Early Career Research Award. This Award was launched in 2019 and grants a prize for an original piece of research (e.g. research done for master’s or PhD thesis, article or publication) informed in whole, or in part, by objects/collections deposited in DRI. Unpublished research is also considered, as long as the work is intended for eventual publication. Find out more about the Award, previous winners, and the application process on the DRI Early Career Research Award page.
Other helpful resources
DRI encourages the use of existing vocabularies in repository metadata. Vocabularies tend to be discipline or domain specific, and as we are a multi-disciplinary repository, we will not be creating a DRI specific vocabulary. Instead, we're providing links to standard vocabularies for your information.
Contact DRI about Training and Education
We encourage all DRI members to join our introductory training workshops and live assistance sessions, which offer opportunities to ask questions. Outside of those sessions we also welcome members to get in touch with any questions.
Please send any questions relating to digital archiving and data preparation and ingest to DRI’s Digital Archivist, Kevin Long: k.long@ria.ie
For enquiries about upcoming training sessions and membership in general, please contact DRI’s Training and Engagement Manager, Lorraine Marrey at l.marrey@ria.ie
We endeavour to reply to questions as quickly as possible, within our working hours.