Accessing and Using Data in the Irish Qualitative Data Archive

Dr. Jane Gray

Irish Qualitative Data Archive, NUI Maynooth

‘Keeping Children Safe and Secure in Ireland’

University College, Cork, 13th September 2011

Who We Are

• Established in 2008 as part of the Irish Social Science Platform under PRTLI4

• Housed in the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis at NUI Maynooth

• Aims: – To be the central access point for all qualitative

social science data generated in Ireland– Promote best practice in data management

• Participant in consortium to develop a National Audiovisual Repository (NAVR) under PRTLI5

Qualitative Data

• What kinds of data do we archive?– Interviews (audio,

video, transcripts)– Focus groups– Diaries and

documents– Field notes– Photographs

• Why re-use archived qualitative data?– Ask new questions– Comparative studies– Learn by looking at the

work of others– Reduce burden on

respondents – Add value for funders

Growing Up in Ireland

• Qualitative module– Interviews with children

– Interviews with parents

– Time capsules

– Field notes

• First wave of interviews with sample of 120 families from the 9 year cohort

• Launch 22nd September

R    ok. So what about again if you think into the future, is there anything that you think that you would be worried about?C    getting a jobR    ok. Why do you think that’s a worry, do you think that might be hard?C    yeahR    what do you think makes that hard?C    that other people apply and they could just get itR    so before you. Is there any job in particular that you think you might like to do? Apart from soccer player, you'll probably earn loads of money from that so you won’t need a job! But if you had to get a job is there anything?C    maybe to have a @@shop##R    ok. What would you sell?C    plants and carpets, bowls and plates, cups and toys

Suburban Affiliations

Mixed method study of four suburban areas in Greater Dublin Area 2002-2004

Protestants and Irishness in Independent Ireland

We walked from here … we had a protestant school .. They’d have to go into their own school further in the town. And we connected in the morning and, in. out .. We visited, we kicked football, we were always pals … oh,we’d have a slagging match coming out the road, all right … Catholic, Catholic, quack,quack, quack, Go to the divvil, and never come back. Protestant, Protestant, - they had some other rhyme! That’s all. And go away laughing .. Meant nothing

• Oral history comprising more than one hundred interviews

Irish Catholics in Scotland“As soon as the school closed we went across. My father would be working and then he would come across for a fortnight for the Fair. So as soon as we went over there the first thing we would do was throw off our shoes and socks and that would be us more or less for the holiday, apart from Sundays, running about in our bare feet .. .

That was the whole idea to get away from city life. I remember thinking some of the days we would be coming back and you would be saying to yourself just think tomorrow we'll be in Glasgow and it was really a sad occasion and when the mini bus came to pick us up, there would be a dozen of us going back and one person would start crying and that started us all, and my oldest brother would go around saying cheerio to the hens and the cows and it was terrible. It is still a wrench leaving the place and coming back but in those days you knew that was it for another year. “

Life Histories and Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

Retrospective qualitative interviews with respondents who took part in all eight waves of the Living in Ireland study

"My mother used to make a ball and we used to play ball, she used to make a hurl out of a bit of a board and make the handle a bit thin and you could catch it, no shape or make it only a bit of a board. And she used to make a ball out of a soft set of turf and put an old sock around it"

Best Practice in Data Management: the RACcER Project

• Demonstrator project co-funded by IRCHSS and Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative

• Best Practice Handbook

• Archive of CDI internal documents– Minutes and agendas

from Board, Management Team, Communities of Practice

Ethical Framework

• Consent• Anonymisation• Depositor and end-

user licenses and legal agreements

• Access and user restrictions

Exploring the IQDA website

• Home page – www.iqda.ie• Qualicat• Accessing data• Depositing data • Other features

– Map search– Anonymisation tool– Audio samples