As we near the end of this peculiar academic year, library staff would like to wish all students the very best of luck in their studies, assignments, and exams. This academic year was a tough one. Understandably many of us will have felt quite overwhelmed at different stages. However, we commend students and staff for their understanding, patience, and willingness to co-operate with COVID-19 restrictions within the library. As a result of this outstanding cooperation, the library has been able to remain open in recent months despite a level 5 lockdown.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions our library service has had to adapt throughout the year. We launched a new Click and Collect service, a new library chat service, new online Library Workshops, and new online Library Guides to help students and staff cope with the effect COVID-19 restrictions had on our library service. We would like to extend a huge thank you to students and staff for their continued participation with these new library services.
We hope everyone has a lovely sunny summer 
and we wish final year students the very best of luck with their future careers and future study!
Image source: icsknightlynews (2015) The School Year in Memes, The Knightly News International Community School [online], May 21, available: https://icsknightlynews.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/the-school-year-in-memes/ [accessed 6 April 2021].
For now, our libraries in Moylish, LSAD, and Thurles are open from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Although our library issue desks remain closed to limit close contacts, students and staff are still welcome to come into the library to use computers, browse books, and use study desks.
If you do visit the library, we ask that you continue to adhere to COVID-19 restrictions. Please wear a mask, socially distance, use hand sanitizer regularly, and use the provided disinfectant spray and blue roll to wipe down desks before and after use. There is a maximum number of students allowed in each library at any one time. Therefore, we ask you to please pay close attention to the screen counter mounted by each library entrance to see if it is safe for you to enter. The screen will be green if it is safe to enter and red if the library has reached capacity.
Although the library issue desks are closed, library staff are still available by phone (061293265), by email (library@lit.ie) and via our library chat (go to the library website and the chat will pop up). We are now monitoring our email and chat from 9am to 9pm Monday to Thursday and from 9am to 5pm on Friday. If you need to check out a book, please use our Click and Collect service. If you are looking for help with anything like searching for articles, writing literature reviews, or referencing, please check out our excellent online Library Guides. Finally, keep an eye on our opening hours for any changes to our service.
Screenshot of the Library Website with the library chat in the right corner.
The Library, Limerick Institute of Technology, has been short listed in four categories at this year's Education Awards 2021. The Education Awards recognise, encourage and celebrate excellence in the third level education sector on the island of Ireland from both State and privately funded institutions.
LIT Library have been short listed in the categories of:
Best International Collaboration Project
Best Library Team
Best Research Project
Best International Engagement Award
LIT Library have previously been awarded Best Library Teams at the Education Awards 2019 and Best International Research Project Collaboration at the 2018 Education Awards.
The Library received these awards for their contribution to furthering and transforming libraries and education on both the institutional and international levels over many years. These achievements transcend beyond the everyday operation of a modern academic Library service. These activities include operating a quality academic Library across four campuses while successively running eleven major EU funded programmes. The Library have also furthered Library and Information Science (LIS) research internationally through their Conference Ambassador Activities.
The winners of the Education Awards 2021 will be revealed on Thursday 20th May at the fifth annual awards ceremony.
Jerald Cavanagh, Institute Librarian and Project Leader Erasmus+, Limerick Institute of Technology (pictured front right) with Colette Real, Senior Library Assistant, Limerick Institute of Technology (Pictured Front left) holding the 2019 Best Library Team Award. Pictured centre is Olive Vaughan, Senior Library Assistant, Limerick Institute of Technology, Séan de Bhulbh, Assistant Librarian, Limerick Institute of Technology (Pictured Centre left), Padraig Kirby, Research Development and Innovation Project Officer and Project Coordinator ERASMUS + (Pictured Centre right). Pictured Back left is Stephanie O’ Keeffe, Library Assistant, Limerick Institute of Technology, Brian O’ Donnell, Systems Librarian, Limerick Institute of Technology (Pictured Back centre) and Claire O’ Reilly, Library Assistant, Limerick Institute of Technology (Pictured Back right).
Pictured right - Jerald Cavanagh, Institute Librarian and Project Leader Erasmus+, Limerick Institute of Technology. Pictured left - Padraig Kirby, Research Development and Innovation Project Officer, Project Coordinator, Limerick Institute of Technology.
LIT Library have recently been awarded a grant of almost €260,000 under the Erasmus+ Key Action 226 Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness, 2021-2023 funding programme.
The project which is entitled Innovative Tools for Enhancing E-Learning Solutions in Universities' (DIGITOOLS) is aimed at introducing enhanced digital tools and methods to help university staff address the difficulties generated by the COVID 19 pandemic which has forced European universities to move their teaching activities to the online environment.
Libraries have a central role to play in the project in adapting their services, digital learning materials as well as information and digital skills training, to help university staff deliver quality education through online means. The project which is led by LIT Library, has seven partners from Universities in Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Spain.
The Project Leader of the DIGITOOLS project is Jerald Cavanagh, Institute Librarian, Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and Project Coordinator is Padraig Kirby, Research Development and Innovation Project Officer at LIT. DIGITOOLS will support the teaching staff from Higher Education Institutions in the EU to acquire the skills and competencies needed to create and deliver high quality online courses, including blended teaching.
Although most Higher Education Institutions have been implementing E-learning platforms for many years, the DIGITOOLS project will help educators in the EU address difficulties in using these platforms and in creating and adapting the course content, needed to quickly adapt to the fast evolving and complex situation which the pandemic has presented.
For further information about the DIDITOOLS project, please contact:
Jerald Cavanagh
MA, MSc, BSc Econ
Institute Librarian/Project Leader Erasmus+
Email: jerald.cavanagh@lit.ie
or
Padraig Kirby MSc (LIS) BA (Hons) HdipLIS
Research, Development and Innovation Project Officer
Project Coordinator ERASMUS+
Email: padraig.kirby@lit.ie
Follow us on our brand-new Library Instagram page created by our fantastic new staff member Nadene Ryan! Search for library.lit on Instagram.
Find our main library Facebook page HERE or search for @LIT.Library on Facebook.
Find our LSAD library specific Facebook page HERE or search for @lsadlibrary on Facebook.
Image Source: LoveThisPic (n.d.) facebook is like a fridge [image online], available:https://www.lovethispic.com/ image/54892/ facebook-is-like-a-fridge [accessed 7 April 2021].
This March Library staff took part in the Marchathon step challenge hosted by the National Transport Authority. The library entered two teams: The Walking Read and The Walking Read Two.
The Walking Read came an impressive 5th place out of all the teams that entered the competition from LIT, while The Walking Read Two came 19th place!
Aside for the mental and physical health benefits library staff also captured some beautiful pictures of landscapes while out walking.
Picture by Aleksandra Styka
Picture by Nadene Ryan
Picture by Olive Vaughan
Picture by Jerald Cavanagh
LIT Library has a new subscription to the journal Active Learning in Higher Education. Students and Staff have full text access to the articles published in this journal from 01/07/2000 to present.
To access go to the library's Publication Finder and search for Active Learning in Higher Education in the search box.
Then click on the link SAGE Journals 01-07-2000 - present to access.
Feel like a distraction from our current reality but sick of Netflix? Why not look into some of the interesting books library staff have read and recommended recently!
On 1st May 1849, a woman named Ellen Langley died in Nenagh, County Tipperary. She was the wife of a prominent local doctor, Dr. Charles Langley. Her husband was charged with her murder. "The Doctor's Wife is Dead" tells the story of the
inquest into Ellen Langley's death, and the trial of her husband.
It tells the story of an unhappy marriage, a marriage where her husband had confined her to the attic of their house with little food and no heat, and later expelled her from the house to a rented room in a house in a poor part of town. After her death she was buried in a pauper's coffin, which prior to burial lay in the backyard of their house for two days.
The trial caused a sensation. The judge said that he had never been presented with such "a frightful amount of depravity and immorality". This murder case was so "shocking" and "controversial" it was debated in parliament. Set against the background of famine-ravaged County Tipperary, this book is rich in period details. It draws attention to the inequalities of gender, poverty and wealth and the religious divisions of Catholics and Protestants.
The book has been described as "Astonishing", "Gripping" and "Truly illuminating" by various reviewers. The author, Andrew Tierney, is a native of Nenagh and a distant relative of Ellen Langley. Well worth reading if you are interested in Irish history or if not, as a true life murder mystery.
-Anne O Donoghue
come at a better time.
a large amount of black comedy with them and a large amount of magical realism too. And so, we meet melancholy men like Seams Ferris, Timothy Jackson and Con McCarthy, a lovestruck women named Hannah Cryan, and a lost Roma child called Kizzy.The Library, Technological University of the Shannon: Midwest