Master class: Archiving and Accessing Qualitative Data

Date: Thursday 26 January 2012
Time: 10am to 2pm
Location: TCD School of Nursing & Midwifery, D’Olier Street, Dublin 2
Further information: www.childrensresearchnetwork.org

Event Summary:
There is a growing body of qualitative research data being made available in data archives in both Ireland and the UK. Examples of Irish qualitative data currently available for further analysis include Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) and Life Histories and Social Change in 20th Century Ireland. The Timescapes Research Programme, at the University of Leeds, hosts a wide variety of economic and social research data relevant to child and family researchers; data which is available to researchers in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Access to this data provides researchers with greater opportunities to explore the issues that affect children, their families and their communities and which may ultimately contribute to informing children's policy. In this the second master class of the Children's Research Network for Ireland and Northern Ireland, participants will learn about the various qualitative datasets that are publicly-available for research purposes in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Key speakers:

• Dr Jane Gray from NUI Maynooth will explain the background to the establishment of Irish Qualitative Data Archive (IQDA). She will look at the processes and procedures involved in lodging and accessing data in the archive and the criteria for assessing access requests.
• Brian Merriman from the Children’s Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin will provide details of the Growing Up in Ireland qualitative data available from IQDA, and will discuss his experience of preparing and lodging the GUI data in the archive.
• Dr Tara Murphy, as research manager for Childhood Development Initiative (CDI), Tara was responsible for preparing CDI qualitative evaluation data for lodging with IQDA; Tara will discuss her experience of this process.
• Brenda Phillips from the Timescapes Research Programme at the University of Leeds will describe the type of data that is collected and how researchers can access this data.