Many communities on the island of Ireland have been historically marginalised, and this marginalisation continues to reflect an underrepresentation in traditional memory institutions. The time, effort, and skill that goes into creating community-based archives is often undertaken by individuals or groups working on a voluntary basis or with little funding.
As a publicly funded repository for Ireland’s social and cultural data, the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) believes it is important to make long-term preservation of digital materials open to a wide range of organisations, including those operating on a non-funded, voluntary basis. We value the publication of a diversity of datasets and collections and are committed to supporting community-based archival initiatives through sharing our digital preservation skills and profession-based knowledge. We, therefore, offer some associate memberships and all the related benefits, as part of our DRI Community Archive Scheme for the length of time it takes a group to add their collection to the Repository.
If you have any queries about the scheme you can email the DRI Membership Manager Maeve O’ Brien: m.obrien@ria.ie
