The Status of the Irish Research eLibrary — Mary Pat Fallon
Conclusion
The objectives of IReL are ambitious. The future of IReL is ambiguous.
On the one hand, IReL faces major challenges in both the economy and in its response to economic pressures. It has already been forced to cut back on some of its holdings and resources, and while it still enjoys some 105 electronic journal collections and databases, it has cancelled 21 databases and 91 journals [30]. The very ambition that drove the creation of IReL is difficult to sustain in periods of economic instability or downturn.
By the same token, the technologically–developed nations of the world recognize the value (in both the social and economic sense) of developing and sustaining research and development tools — and researchers and students who know how to use them — in countries like Ireland, barely a generation removed from widespread poverty and high unemployment. International bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co–operation and Development (OECD) have called for greater investment by industry in sustaining the information infrastructure that will keep Ireland on the road to building an “innovation economy” [31]. It is unlikely that Ireland will allow IReL to fall by the wayside, especially when the need for higher education has never been greater.
On the other hand, the proposition that “it is unlikely that Ireland will allow IReL to fall by the wayside” is not a guarantee that the Irish Government, saddled with the debt of an enormous European bailout, will be willing or able to fund higher education — and schemes like IReL — to the extent it did in the days of the “Celtic Tiger.” It may fall upon other stakeholders and beneficiaries — private sector and industrial funding sources — to “pick up the slack” and offset whatever budget cuts the Irish Government is forced to make.
There is very little question that the Irish Research Electronic Library has provided excellent service at relatively low cost to its members and their faculties and students and, by extension, companies doing business in Ireland and the Irish economy as a whole. In its two phases, Biotechnology and Information Technology and Humanities and Social Sciences, it has made more information available at lower costs, increased the use of information, spurred research activity and enhanced multidisciplinary research, facilitated greater collaboration among institutions of higher education, made Irish higher education more competitive with the rest of the world, and contributed to the pre–recession growth of the Irish economy.
What happens next? Future research should focus on the continued development of IReL with particular attention paid to funding, collection/resource management, and a fair distribution of resources among the technology disciplines and those of humanities and social sciences.
Notes
1. Avril Patterson, “Research support through resource sharing: challenges and opportunities for Irish academic libraries,” Interlending & Document Supply, 37/2 (2009): 87.
2. IReL (2007), IReL Impact Survey: Report and Analysis, IreL, Dublin, available at: www.irelibrary.ie/docs/IReL_Survey_Report.pdf (accessed November 27, 2010).
3. Robin Adams, “IReL: Irish Research electronic Library” (PowerPoint presentation), http://www.sconul.ac.uk/events/agm2008/presentations/adams.ppt (accessed January 12, 2011).
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. “IReL usage 2005–2009,” Irish Research electronic Library Web site, http://www.irelibrary.ie/images/IReL-Usage_2005-2009_linechart.JPG (accessed October 27, 2010).
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. John Cox, “IReL Impact Survey: summary of findings, April 2009,” p. 3, http://www.irelibrary.ie/files/IReLImpact09.pdf on the Web site of the Irish Research electronic Library, http://www.irelibrary.ie/about.aspx (accessed November 23, 2010).
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., p. 6.
15. Ibid., p. 7.
16. Ibid.
17. European Commission. European Research Area, “Ireland: Major EU Achievements in Science and Research, 2002–2009,” p. 4, http://www.fp7ireland.com/cms/Documents/eu_research_2004-2009_irl_909.pdf (accessed January 12, 2011).
18. Ibid.
19. Cox (2009), op. cit., p. 4.
20. Monica Crump, “Portals, A to Z, OPAC: how best to provide access to our resources,” SCONUL Focus 43 (Spring 2008): 22.
21. D. Banush, M. Kurth and J. Pajarek, “Rehabilitating killer serials: an automated strategy for maintaining e–journal metadata,” Library Resources & Technical Services 49, no. 3 (2005): 194.
22. J. Gotwals, “Growing needs and limited budgets: the challenge of supporting print and electronic resources,” College & Research Libraries News 66, no. 4 (2005): 294–6, 300.
23. “Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation: 2006–2013,” Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, 2006, p. 30, http://www.deti.ie/publications/science/2006/sciencestrategy.pdf (accessed December 28, 2010).
24. “Research infrastructure in Ireland — building for tomorrow,” The Higher Education Authority/An tUdaras um Ard-Oideachas (Ireland), 2007, p. 46, http://www.hea.ie/webfm_send/1639 (accessed January 1, 2011).
25. Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation: 26.
26. Ibid.
27. John Cox, “Sharing the pain, striving for gain,” Serials 23, no. 1 (March 2010): 12.
28. Ibid., p. 14.
29. “What do researchers think of IReL,” http://www.irelibrary.ie/files/What percent20do percent20researchers percent20think percent20of percent20IReL.doc (MS Word document), linked on “About IReL,” http://www.irelibrary.ie/about.aspx#doc (Accessed January 12, 2011).