IQDA News

A vital record of contemporary Irish life

The Irish Qualitative Data Archive was launched on Tuesday the 22nd of June by Catriona Crowe of the National Archives who spoke about her experiences as a young archivist and the importance of archives. Sound files of her excellent speech can be found here.

Dr Heather Crawford spoke about her experiences in archiving data from her Protestants and Irish Identity project, and Dr Mary Corcran introduced her project on returning Irish Migrants. Professor Sean O'Riain introduced and played two sound clips from the Life History and Social Change Project. Professor Rob Kitchin introduced the two photographic archives housed by the IQDA and Dr Jane Gray, programme leader for the archive introduced the work of the Irish Qualitative Data Archive. She said that "the archive provides a vital record of contemporary Irish life. It tells us who we are today and will provide an important record for future social histories. It will play a significant role in promoting the culture of sharing and reusing social science data in Ireland". Audio from all the speeches can be found here.

We are delighted to announce that the transcripts from Dr Heather Crawford's project Outside the Glow. Protestants and Irishness in Independent Ireland are now archived and available for re-use. Information about the project can be found on this page. Audio recorded at the book lauch for Outside the Glow can also be found on that page (sadly sound levels are quite low, so headphones will be needed to listen to it).
 
Aileen O'Carroll
 
 
 
 
 
 

The second in our series of seminars on qualitative data and social policy will be presented by Liz Kerrins, Senior Policy Officer with the Children's Research Centre, Trinity College.  Liz has 13 years experience in research, policy analysis and advocacy.  She has analysed policy on children and the built environment and child poverty, and has undertaken consultation with children on their views on the local community.  She supports the dissemination and utilization of the Children's Research Centre's research, and is the editor of the Children's Research Centre's Research Briefing series.
The seminar will be held in the NIRSA/NCG conference room in the John Hume Building (third floor) at NUI Maynooth at 4 p.m., Wednesday, February 3rd.
 
Aileen O'Carroll

We are delighted to announce that the Irish Qualitative Data Archive, in association with the Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative (CDI)  has been awarded a grant from the Irish Research Council for Humanities and the Social Sciences.  This exciting joint project, co-funded by Tallaght West CDI, aims to explore and implement innovative approaches to archiving the complex qualitative and contextual data generated by  the independent evaluation teams that have been commissioned by CDI, without overlapping or duplicating work already being undertaken.  It will document the concerns of both researchers and potential data users and will establish and disseminate best practice guidelines for archiving data generated in community-based evaluation research.  It will be a significant demonstrator project for the development of a wider culture of qualitative data archiving in Ireland.
Aileen O'Carroll

Timescapes Conference: The Craft of Qualitative Longitudinal Research
Wednesday, 20th January 2010, 9am-5pm
Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Glamorgan Building
 
Cardiff School of Social Sciences is holding a one day conference which provides an opportunity to consider research that takes a qualitative, longitudinal approach to researching families, relationships and identities-in the-making. The Conference theme will be around the craft of Qualitative Longitudinal Research. This event is being held in collaboration with the ESRC Timescapes Study, which is exploring the ways in which personal and family relationships unfold over time and through the life course, and how those relationships shape who we are.  The conference will be of particular interest to those who wish to hear about cutting edge research that is developing and showcasing the use of qualitative longitudinal methodologies and methods, and the principles and practices of temporal research.  See the conference website at:
 
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/newsandevents/events/timescapes2010/index...