Library Opening Hours for the Christmas and New Year Period

Mountjoy Square Library will be open as follows during the Christmas/New Year period:

Sat. 20th Dec: Closed
Mon 22nd Dec: 9.30-5.15
Tue 23rd Dec: 9.30-Lunchtime

New Year 2009
Mon 5th-Thurs 8th Jan: 9-30-9.30
Fri 9th Jan: 9.30-5.15
Sat 10th Jan: 10.00-5.00

Numbers of Homeless Rise Despite Record Funding

The number of homeless people has risen by 4 per cent over the past three years to more than 2,300 despite unprecedented public funding directed at eliminating long-term homelessness within the next two years. A review of homeless services commissioned by the Homeless Agency Partnership has raised concerns about too much money being put into emergency as opposed to longer term acommodation which may help people out of the status of homelessness. Click here to see Irish Times report on 16th December 2008.

Mother sues Author of "Ugly: The True Story of a Loveless Childhood"

The mother of the author of "Ugly: the True Story of a Loveless Childhood" - an autobiography of a traumatic childhood which has sold nearly 600,000 copies - has sued her daughter, Constance Briscoe, and publisher, Hodder & Stoughton for libel. She accuses her daughter of writing a "piece of fiction". Click here to see report in the Guardian on 18 November 2008.

Dublin Children's Court makes Parental Supervision Order

Dublin Children's Court has placed a parental supervision order on the mother and father of a 17 year old offender who had been arrested for handling a stolen laptop. The youth's parents were ordered to make sure their son does not commit further offences at the risk of being held in contempt of court and facing penalties. It was the third time that Dublin Children's Court had made this type of order against parents. Click here to see the Irish Times report in its "In Short" column on 8th October 2008. (You may need to scroll down the Irish Times page a little to see the report).

The Liverpool Biennial

The Observer provides an overview of Britains's largest festival of contemporary art running until November 30th. See here.

New Standards for Residential Services for People with Disabilities

On 16th September the Health Information and Quality Authority published new Draft National Quality Standards: Residential Services: People with Disabilities. They set out what a quality and safe service for people with disabilities in a residential setting in Ireland should be. When the standards become final they will be mandatory in nature and residential services will be inspected in accordance with, and be obliged to comply with them. Click here to see the Draft Standards. Click here to see the Irish Times Report.

The Government has announced a New Homelessness Strategy

On 21 August 2008 the Minister for State for Housing, Michael Finneran, launched the Government's new homelessness strategy. It is entitled The Way Home: A Strategy to Address Adult Homelessness in Ireland 2008-2013. The strategy envisages a major shift away from emergency beds and towards long-term and mainstream housing. Click here to access the report in pdf format on the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government's website. Click here to see Irish Times account of the strategy.

Child Protection Services seen as Hostile

Child protection services are viewed by many children and parents who have come into contact with them as powerful, unsympathetic and hostile, according to a study published on 31st July 2008. The study which is entitled Service Users Perceptions of Irish Child Protection System was carried out by Dr Helen Buckley, a senior lecturer at Trinity College Dublin's School of Social Work, and is based on almost 70 users experience. Click here to see the Irish Times account

Irish people with disabilities still living in outdated institutions

An internal review being conducted by health authorities estimates that any many as 3,000 people with disabilities or mental health problems may need to be transferred out of inappropriate institutions and into the community. See the Irish Times article "Forgotten People who wait in Hope".

Constitutional Challenge to Ireland's Domestic Violence Law dismissed

On 11th July an estranged father of five lost his High Court bid to have provisions of the Domestic Violence Act related to the making of protection orders declared unconstitutional. He had claimed that the making of protection orders was a constitutionally impermissible attack on the family or breached a number of other rights under the Constitution, including his right to his good name. See Irish Times report .

Ireland's Drug Abuse Culture

In a report published on 25th June 2008 the National Advisory Committee on Drugs has found that the proportion of people who have used cocaine more than doubled in most parts of Ireland between 2003 and 2007. They also found that cannabis is the most commonly used drug followed by magic mushrooms, ecstasy and cocaine. The report states that more men than women and more young adults than older adults use illegal drugs. Full details of the report can be viewed by clicking here. See the Irish Times account by clicking here.

The Naked Truth

More than 1,000 people take up American artist Spencer Tunick’s “Dare to Bare” challenge in the grounds of Blarney Castle.

Irish Woman challenges UK Child Support Agency for alleged failure to secure maintenance

An Irish woman living in the UK has sought a declaration in the European Court of Human Rights that the provisions of the UK Child Support Act 1991 were incompatible with Article 6.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights as they denied a parent with children the right of access to a court to seek maintenance. She also sought damages against the UK Child Support Agency for the delay in trying to obtain maintenance payments from her estranged husband for her and her children. Click here to read Irish Times report. Click here to view the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.

New Government Strategy to Accommodate Homeless People

Click here to read about the new Irish Government five year strategy to tackle homelessness by using private rented accommodation rather than emergency hostel beds.

Just how equal are the members of Irish society?

The ESRI and the Equality Authority have collaborated in a report - "The Experience of Discrimination in Ireland" - It is profiled in the Irish Times on 27 May. Click here to access the report on the ESRI Web site. Click here to view the Irish Times feature.

Gallery Guide

Irish Times list of Dublin's premier galleries.

EU States to Share Information on Criminal Convictions

Under an agreement to be reached between the European Parliament and EU justice ministers shortly Irish authorities will automatically be given details of Irish people who are convicted in other EU states and Irish authorities will be obliged automatically to notify EU states of convictions of their citizens in Ireland. The agreement will come into effect in three years time. Click here for Irish Times report

"Impressionist Interiors" exhibition at the National Gallery

10 MAY - 10 AUGUST 2008:

The National Gallery of Ireland presents an exhibition highlighting the intimate observations of the Impressionists and their circle. Impressionist Interiors features over 45 wonderful paintings and drawings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt, Gauguin, Vuillard and Morisot from both the Gallery's collection and important European and US collections. Further information can be found here.

Does the prison system offer offenders a realistic prospect of rehabilitation?

See "In and Out" a special Prisons feature in the Society Guardian where ex offenders give their account of why the prison system fails and how it could be made to work. Click here to view.

Do Secondary School Enrolment Policies Discriminate?

The Department of Education's recent audit of school enrolment reveals that there may be a class divide permeating the Irish education system at second level. Click here to access the results of the the audit on the Department of Education and Science website. Click here for the Irish Times discussion of the issues.

HSE Report reveals problems in child abuse and neglect services

The first national review of child protection and welfare services by the Health Service Executive shows the system is failing some of the most vulnerable children in the state. See Irish Times headline and feature for further information.

Image Making from Shanghai : Student Exhibition at Mountjoy Square

Following their visit to Shanghai, 3rd and 4th year Visual Communication Design students explore their own individual themes based on their responses to the city and its culture. View the exhibition on the ground floor at DIT Mountjoy Square.

World's oldest photo for sale.

See Telegraph article.

Pills: Which ones have you taken?

See the exhibition at Trinity Science Gallery.

"The world has been waiting for a great triptych, and this is it."

Francis Bacon work to be sold at auction.

Bullying Tactics - How to help children cope with bullying

See Irish Times HEALTHplus feature for further information.

Equality Body to challenge ruling on exam disability

See Irish Times article for the full story.

Proposed Child Detention Centre at Lusk could hold all young offenders

See proposals to remove all children from the prison system in Irish Times article.

'The Arts are Useless'

Irish Times article suggests that Oscar Wilde's proclamation need not be true.

The Public and the Arts

Download the findings of the Arts Council's Survey that recorded the attitudes of a varied demographic to "the role of the arts in society".

Record Breaker

Irish Museum of Modern Art clocks up 480,000 visitors during 2007.
See Irish Times article.

New Regulations to apply Higher Standards to Nursing Homes

See Irish Times article for the full story.

Separate Referendum on Children's Rights proposed.

See Irish Times article for the full story.For more information on the referendum see the Ombudsman for Children website.

Head of Unit to Fight Trade in Humans Appointed.

See Irish Times article for the full story.

Bill Aims to Outlaw Sex with Trafficking Victims

See Irish Times article for the full story.Click here for more information on the new Human Trafficking Bill including amendments made this week.

Social Sciences Database of the Month - Sociological Abstracts

Sociological Abstracts is a real treasure trove as databases go! It contains abstracts of international literature on sociology and related subjects and includes material on family and social welfare, health, law, religion, science and women's studies. The database provides access to abstracts of books, book chapters, articles, conference papers and dissertations. You can select the abstracts you wish to retain and save, print or e-mail them. In some cases you can access the full text of the material in PDF format. Check out our Sociological Abstracts guide or click here to go directly to the database. Happy hunting!

Database of the Month- Design and Applied Arts Index

Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI) is an excellent and easy to use database with information on design, designers, craftspeople, studios and firms; and over 175,000 articles from leading design and applied arts journals.Coverage is from 1973 onwards.Most articles are only available as abstracts but there are some full-text articles. You will see a icon beside the article if there is a full-text copy available. This can then be saved, printed or emailed for future reference.
Check out our short guide to DAAI or go straight to the database.

Library Databases- what are they?

A library database is an electronic catalogue or index that contains information about published items. Most library databases index articles from journals/magazines, books, or newspapers.
Library databases provide citation information about the items they index. A citation usually consists of: Author, Title of article, Source (title of publication), Publisher, Date of Publication.
Most databases provide abstracts of the item they index. Abstracts are summaries provided by the author or database publisher. Some databases provide the full-text (entire article) of some of the items they index (examples in DIT are: Art Full-Text, Sage Criminology).
Library databases sometimes omit photos, graphs, charts, and figures from articles; but most will indicate that these have been omitted.
Most library databases index items from a specific academic discipline. To locate a database by subject go to Find an Art and Design Database or Find a Social Science Database.
Alternatively you can access all the databases available through DIT here*.
Check out our Quick Guides to Art and Design databases or Social Science databases.

*You will need to be a registered DIT student or staff memeber to access the databases. You will need to enter your Name, Student/ID number, and PIN to access the databases from outside DIT. If you have not already created a PIN you can do so here. Submit all your details and you will asked to confirm your new PIN.
If you already have a PIN but cannot remember it please contact the library issue desk, phone 01-4024108, or email the library mjs.library@dit.ie