DPASSH will return as a hybrid event in June 2022, with the theme of Digital Preservation of Religious Collections: Conversations and Collaborations, hosted by the Digital Repository of Ireland. Please use the following link to register for the conference.
Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick from the Clericus Project at Maynooth University will be presenting his latest research on Monday 27th June 2022 from 12.15-1pm via Zoom.
All times in Irish Summer Time (IST)
Draft programme, subject to changes
Monday 27 June
Workshop Programme
All sessions are online, via Zoom
| 9.45 – 10.00 |
| Welcome session, with a brief tour of the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) repository
Dr Deborah Thorpe and Dr Lisa Griffith, DRI |
| 10.00 – 10.45 |
| Appraisal of collections for digitisation and preservation
Barbara McCormack, Royal Irish Academy Chair: Claire Lanigan, DRI |
| 10.45 – 11.00 |
| BREAK |
| 11.00 – 12.00 |
| A Practical guide to digitisation
Paul Manzor, Eneclann (conference sponsor) Chair: Dr Deborah Thorpe, DRI |
| 12.00 – 12.15 |
| BREAK |
| 12.15 – 13.00 |
| Ordination Class Portraits: from analogue to digital
Dr Richard Fitzpatrick, Maynooth University and Clericus project Chair: Kevin Long, DRI |
| 13.00 – 14.00 |
| BREAK |
| 14.00 – 14.50 |
| Copyright and licensing as a part of digital preservation
Clare Lanigan, Archiving Reproductive Health Chair: Dr Lorraine Grimes, DRI |
| 14.50 – 15.00 |
| BREAK |
| 15.00 – 15.30 |
| Enhancing user engagement with collections using post-ingest tools
Dr Kathryn Cassidy and Dr Stuart Kenny, DRI Chair: Dr Lisa Griffith, DRI |
Tuesday 28 June
Day off / travelling day
Wednesday 29 June
Conference Programme
Online and Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. All in person presentations will be broadcast via Zoom.
09.30 – 10.00: registration and coffee (Royal Irish Academy). Zoom room will be open from 9.45 onwards.
| 10.00 – 10.15 |
| Welcome address
Dr Natalie Harrower, Director, Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) In person | broadcast via Zoom |
| 10.15 – 11.15 |
| Keynote
Professor John McCafferty (University College Dublin) ‘Digitising God’s fingerprints. The public, the private and the numinous in religious archives’ Chair: Dr Natalie Harrower, DRI In person | broadcast via Zoom |
| 11.15 – 11.45 |
| Coffee and chat | Zoom screen break
At the in-person coffee break, there will be an opportunity to hear a short talk from conference sponsor Nano Nagle Place about its collections and membership. |
| 11.45 – 13.00 |
| Paper Session 1: Practicalities and challenges of digital archiving
Anna James, Medical Mission Sisters, ‘Muddling through with average IT skills and intense imposter syndrome: a lone archivist sets up a digital archive’ (online) Dr Susan Hood, RCB Library, ‘Digital Archiving: Practicalities and Challenges for a Small Religious Repository’ (in person) Chair: Damien Burke, Irish Jesuit Archive |
| 13.00 – 13.45 |
| LUNCH BREAK |
| 13.45 – 14.45 |
| Paper Session 2: Projects in digitisation and digital archiving
Robin P. Roddie, ‘Irish Methodist Archives – Unlocking the past: Digitisation as key to researching 150 years of religious periodicals, 1859-2015’ (in person) Prof. Deirdre Raftery and Audrey Drohan, University College Dublin, ‘Digital reconstitution and digital collections: recent projects by UCD ConventCollections’ (hybrid presentation) Chair: Dr Danielle Donovan, Nano Nagle Place |
| 14.45 – 15.00 |
| Coffee and chat | Zoom screen break |
| 15.00 – 16.00 |
| Paper Session 3: Digital Reconstruction of religious collections
Chris Hamill, Queen’s University Belfast, ‘The Atlas of Lost Rooms: Digitally reconstructing Ireland’s lost Magdalene sites’ (in person) Gary Dempsey, Atlantic Technological University, and Orla-Peach Power, MaREI University College Cork, ‘Sheela3D – A Digital Repository for Exhibitionist Figures’ (in person) Chair: Dr Kathryn Cassidy, DRI |
| 16.00 – 16.30 |
| Dr Laurence Cox, Maynooth University, ‘The practical challenges of less-established and newer religions in Ireland: the case of Buddhism’ (online)Chair: Dr Lisa Griffith, DRI |
Thursday 30 June
Conference
Online and Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. All in person presentations will be broadcast via Zoom.
09.30 – 10.00: registration and coffee (Royal Irish Academy). Zoom will be open from 9.45 onwards.
| 10.00 – 11.00 |
| Keynote
Dr Niamh Nicghabhann (University of Limerick) ‘Questions Answered, Answers Questioned: collections, preservation, and new directions in the scholarship of material religion’ Chair: Dr Kelly Fitzgerald, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland In person | broadcast to Zoom |
| 11.00 – 11.30 |
| Coffee and chat | Zoom screen break
At the in-person coffee break, there will be an opportunity to hear from Dr Kelly Fitzgerald, President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, one of our conference sponsors. |
| 11.30 – 12.45 |
| Paper session 4: Preserving and Recording Ireland’s Sacred Heritage: An introduction to the PARISH digitisation project
Dr Sarah Roddy, Maynooth University, will put the project in context, by setting out the original inspiration for it, and its intellectual rationale Dr Heather Stanfiel, University of Notre Dame) will discuss the (many) practicalities and challenges of capturing, storing and making the data available to researchers Dr Colin Barr, University of Aberdeen/Notre Dame, will discuss the future plans in place for PARISH and its potential impact in the wider fields of Irish and Catholic Studies Chair: Ronan Doheny, Faithful Companions of Jesus, Kimmage / Treasurer of the Association of Church Archives In person | broadcast to Zoom |
| 12.45 – 13.45 |
| LUNCH BREAK |
| 13.45 – 14.45 |
| Paper session 5: Accessing and interpreting digitised religious records
Dr. Riccardo Amerigo Vigliermo and Prof. Federico Ruozzi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose (FSCIRE), Digital Maktaba: AI perspectives for automatic text extraction and catalogation of religious archives in non-latin alphabets volumes (Arabic, Persian, Azerbaijani): challenges of La Pira digital archive (in person) Sue Hemmens, Marsh’s Library, ‘Finding asylum: preservation and access to a Huguenot archive’ (in person) Chair: Preetam Singvi, DRI |
| 14.45 – 15.15 |
| Coffee and chat | Zoom screen break
At the in-person coffee break, there will be an opportunity to hear from Margaret Bluett of conference sponsor the Association for Church Archives about the society, its work, and what membership can offer. |
| 15.15 – 16.15 |
| Keynote
Prof. Fallou Ngom (Boston University) Digital Archives of Muslim Africa: Making Africa’s Ajami Manuscripts Visible Chair: Dr Bronagh McShane, NUI Galway Online | broadcast to Royal Irish Academy |
| 16.15 |
| Closing address
Dr Deborah Thorpe, Education and Outreach Manager, DRI In person, broadcast to Zoom |