Our goal is to offer flexible, affordable, innovative, evidence-based postgraduate education in digital information management for Ireland and beyond.
Programmes:
- Master of Science - offered full time/part time, 90 credits (with internship or thesis option)
- Graduate Diploma - offered ft/pt, 60 credits
- Graduate Certificate, offered pt, 30 credits
- Professional Certificate, offered pt, 15 credits (online or blend of online/accelerated module)
The four programmes allow a student to choose the level of digital preservation education they need as well as start at a lesser number of modules and build up (one has the option to first enroll in the Graduate Certificate and eventually work up to the full Master of Science). This also allows a student to choose from digital preservation education at a variety of fee structures. The Professional Certificate, including the online only option, is available for a total cost of €1130 for 2018-2019 (EU AND Non-EU) school year. This puts digital preservation education within reach for many who may not have been able to afford the cost of a year-long programme, or to leave work to attend classes on a full-time basis.
The programme modules use a variety of delivery formats: traditional semester long face to face (F2F) modules; accelerated four-day modules; and online, on-demand modules that can be accessed and completed any time throughout the semester.
The Master of Science, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate launched in 2015. In 2018, all programmes were revised and the professional certificate was added, based on results of a two-year case study of digital curation needs in Ireland. This project was funded by the Archives and Records Administration of the UK and Ireland through a grant to Cushing and Shankar.
We started with a web questionnaire in Autumn 2015, in which we asked professionals to report on their existing digital curation knowledge and skills. In Summer 2016, we conducted interviews with those engaged in digital curation work about workplace challenges. Finally, in Spring 2017, we collected data from another online questionnaire, this time asking about digital curation CPD preferences. We analysed the data and used it to redesign the programmes.
Our research, published in 2018 in Archives and Records, found that few people in Ireland, even information professionals, understand the basics of digital curation. They were not always sure when they were doing digital curation work and if they needed to learn more. Often, individuals managing digital data were the only ones in their organisations doing so and thus needed “in reach” skills to advocate for digital curation within their institutions.
As a result of these findings, we decided to make these changes to our courses:
- Change the name of the programme from digital curation to digital information management. While digital curation is used extensively in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, the term was unfamiliar to many in Ireland. This new name will help make the programmes more accessible.
- A new module was also developed that is now available across all four programmes: Outreach and Communication for Digital Information Management. This module focuses on traditional outreach and advocacy, but also the importance of “inreach” - communicating and advocating for digital preservation within one’s own organisation.
- We now offer “tracks” or specialisations in the Master of Science and Graduate Diploma programmes. Our research suggested we need to teach core skills, but also offer students the ability to learn contextual issues associated with working in different fields and sectors. We now offer three tracks that focus on the cultural heritage sector, the tech sector/private industry and government sector/higher education institutions. The optional modules for each track are designed to meet the needs of digital preservation in different settings.
Our core modules offer students to learn about digital preservation via a variety of learning activities. Two examples:
- Our required Managing IT for Information Professional modules is taught via one lecture hour and one computer lab hour per week. This module teaches students the basics of technology, including how a computer works, XML and databases. The idea is that you don’t have to become an IT expert, but you do need to know enough to talk to IT specialists, communicate what you need from them and evaluate quotes for service “without getting the wool pulled over your eyes.”
- Our Digital Curation Tools module is taught in workshop format, over four six-‐hour days. Students have a chance to get their feet wet with basic tools for preservation such as Baggit, DROID, Bitcurator and FITs. Starting this year, we also offer a half-‐day focus on open source tools for preserving audiovisual material, taught by local expert Kieran O’Leary of the IFI Irish Film Archives.