- Collections
About Collections
The Library provides access to all sorts of information resources to support your learning and research. You can search all of our collections through the Library Catalogue, or learn more about different types of information resources below.
- Using the Library
Find your way
Find out about what Library services you can avail of, take our 360 Library tour and navigate your way around the Library. Each section includes a description of services available and allows you to become familiar with the Library before you visit us.
- Help
We're here to help
Library staff provide support, help, and training to enable you to get to grips with the literature of your subject and the Library's resources.
Get help from the Library with your studies, research, or teaching
- Digital Scholarship
Digital Scholarship
The Library welcomes opportunities to advance our Digital Scholarship. Our areas of contribution include content, technology, infrastructure, partnership and the practice-based expertise in our team.
- Open Scholarship
Open Scholarship
The Library supports the practice of research, education and knowledge exchange to enable open collaboration and learning.
- Search
Search
A single search interface to all collections and content, both physical and digital. It's quick, user-friendly, and a personalised discovery experience.
- About
Open Scholarship
What is Open Scholarship?
Open Scholarship is an umbrella term for a wide range of Open practices. Definitions can be tricky but the following (adapted from Foster and Trinity) is a good attempt:
Open Scholarship is the practice of research, education and knowledge exchange in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research publications, data, lab notes and other scholarly processes and works are properly and ethically managed and evaluated and, unless restricted for justifiable reasons, are freely available to all levels of society under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the work and its underlying data and methods.
Terminology
The EU Commission and many universities in mainland Europe use the term Open Science. In the UK, e.g. in Cambridge, Open Research is gaining traction. Because of its broad scope and inclusive concept Open Scholarship is the preferred term of institutions such as Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway. However, these differences in terminology should not distract from the fact that all three concepts are very related and can in many ways be used synonymously (e.g. see use of terms by the Health Research Board).
Strategic importance of Open Scholarship
Open Scholarship is featured in NUI Galway's Strategic Plan 2020-25. In particular, Open NUI Galway includes a Flagship Goal on the importance and promotion of Open Scholarship. The strategy recognises that Open Scholarship is an important concept to lower barriers to knowledge, improve the quality of research and facilitates innovation, engagement and collaboration.
The Eight Pillars of Open Scholarship
The EU Commission has developed the useful concept of the “Eight Pillars of Open Science”. We have adapted that model for the NUI Galway and are working with the following Eight Pillars to define the scope of Open Scholarship:
Additional Questions?

Hardy Schwamm
Open Scholarship Librarian
Twitter @hardyschwamm
Email: hardy.schwammnuigalway.ie