IReL Initiative

DCU researchers will benefit from the biggest single increase in information resources in the university's history as a result of the IReL initiative, launched by HEA/SFI on Monday 16 August. Under this initiative the seven Irish universities will be jointly funded in a collaborative project.

SFI and HEA "are committing €4.5m annually to 2008 in the project, known as the IReL Initiative, to fund improved access to a wide range of electronic journals" (See the HEA web site for further details)

IReL (Irish Research eLibrary) is the result of more than two years of discussion between the CHIU librarians and HEA/SFI which sought to provide Irish researchers with access to a priority list of over 5,000 online scientific journals, and also to build an information infrastructure similar to those which support international peer research communities.

The CHIU librarians have set up a joint management body to negotiate termsof licences and access protcols for the new services. The first titles will be available very soon; Schools will be informed by their liaison librarians of details, which will also be posted on the library web pages.