THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY IS IRELAND'S LEADING BODY OF EXPERTS IN THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann champions research. We identify and recognise Ireland’s world class researchers. We support scholarship and promote awareness of how science and the humanities enrich our lives and benefit society. We believe that good research needs to be promoted, sustained and communicated. The Academy is run by a Council of its members. Membership is by election and considered the highest academic honour in Ireland.

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DHO: Discovery

DHO: Discovery was a gateway to Irish digital collections and resources, information and knowledge. Discovery supported the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional sharing of knowledge throughout the Humanities Serving Irish Society (HSIS) consortium and digital research collections of Irish interest.

DHO: Discovery Data

DHO: Discovery allowed users to browse the objects within the collections available. DHO: Discovery provided three principal means of exploration:

  • Search;
  • Browse; and
  • Discover

There were tabs for each of these functions at the top of each screen and these provide a means for you to use DHO: Discover.

DHO: Discovery provided lists of subject terms, time periods and the names of collections that are contained within the website. The data contained on the original DHO: Discovery website can be downloaded here as a CSV file.

Technology

The original DHO: Discovery website drew information from the DHO repository, based on Fedora Commons, a general-purpose, open-source digital object repository system. Other open-source software used in DHO: Discovery were SOLRPHP, and the Javascript frameworks jQuery and AJAX-Solr. It was compatible with standard-compliant browsers. Every effort was made to ensure compatibility even with non-standard-compliant browsers.

Terms and Conditions

Read the terms and conditions relating to DHO: Discovery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read the FAQ that provides more detail about DHO: Discovery.

Credits

The Digital Humanities Observatory gratefully acknowledges the assistance of e-INISiCHEC and Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies in the development, support and maintenance of the repository on which DHO: Discovery rests.

We thank Deirdre D'Auria of the Foclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge and Dr Eoghan O'Raghallaigh for their assistance with the Irish Language components of this site.

We thank our many user interface testing subjects who freely gave of their time and experience to help us craft a better user experience.

Developing the identity for DHO: Discovery was an interesting journey. We worked with Vermillion Design, who conceptualised the foundation for this banner identity.

About The Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) and Humanities Serving Irish Society (HSIS)

The Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) was a knowledge resource providing outreach and education on a broad range of digital humanities topics. It provided data management, curation, and discovery services supporting the long-term access to, and greater exploitation of, digital resources in the creation of new models, methodologies and paradigms for 21st-century scholarship.

Humanities Serving Irish Society (HSIS) was a consortium of third level institutions funded under cycle four of the Programme of Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI). The HSIS initiative was a partnership of equals committed to developing an inter-institutional research infrastructure for the humanities. Consisting of the Royal Irish Academy, Queen's University, Belfast, University of Ulster, University College Cork, National University of Ireland Galway, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Dublin City University and the University of Limerick.

The DHO and HSIS were both funded under PRTLI4 and thank the HEA, DES and the EU for the funding assistance that has made DHO: Discovery and these initiatives possible. The DHO is a member of the Humanities Serving Irish Society (HSIS).

Contact Us

As of August 31st, 2013, the activities of the Digital Humanities Observatory have ceased. Any queries about this project should be directed to the Royal Irish Academy at info@ria.ie.

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