We are delighted to welcome everyone to our new, spacious, custom-built, accessible Resource Centre! The HEEU has throughout its existence gathered and catalogued resources on issues of education and equality. Over time this resource base has grown significantly. Due to space restrictions and the location of the previous HEEU offices it was difficult to physically accommodate visitors. For that reason we decided not to formally advertise the Resource Centre as a service of the HEEU until we had an appropriate facility in which to house the accumulated material, though we made every attempt to meet all requests to use the resources.
After nine months of planning, building and moving, the Resource Centre was opened to the public as part of the new HEEU premises on the 29th October 2000. The premises located at no. 5 Bloomfield Terrace, Western Road, Cork were provided by UCC and we were able to make the necessary changes with the help of a building grant from the HEA. The new offices of the HEEU were launched by Micheál Martin, T.D. then Minister for Education and Science. The guests at the launch were also addressed by Orla Egan, Director, HEEU, Prof Gerard Wrixon, President of UCC and Mr Eamon Tuffy, Chair of the HEEU Management Board.
The development of the new facility was at times challenging. We wanted to create a space that would offer maximum benefit to all visitors and would also allow the Resource Centre to grow in size for the foreseeable future. The work was further constrained by the fact that we were converting a pre-existing ground-floor layout. Inevitably some compromises were made, however what emerged was a far more functional resource centre than we had originally envisioned.
This did not happen without assistance. We are grateful to the Buildings Office at UCC for their work on the planning and building of the Resource Centre and their creative responses to our requests &endash;the reading area and video facility are particularly noteworthy features. We were also fortunate to have the support of Gerry Kinsella, Access Officer with the NRB (National Rehabilitation Board) in evaluating the accessibility of our plans. The Disability Support Office, UCC had recently moved to new premises and the staff of that office were very helpful in advising and suggesting layouts, décor and equipment which would be appropriate from their experience. Andrew Baker of the National Guide Dogs Association also evaluated the Resource Centre in terms of its accessibility for people with visual impairments and he made recommendations regarding signage and colour scheme among other things.
The HEEU Resource Centre is a specialised library holding materials in the area of equality at third-level (both staff and students) and related equality issues. The Resource Centre holds a collection of close to 2000 resources including books, periodicals, newspaper cuttings files, training resources, videos, reports and other documentation directly relating to or impacting on the areas in which the Unit works.
The HEEU Resource Centre is open to the public in the afternoons (2-5pm, Monday &endash; Friday on an appointment basis). It offers reading space for two people at a time, a searchable computerised catalogue, an equality related video collection and facility for viewing videos, noticeboard and a wide range of equality-related resources for reference. Lists of resources held in specific areas are available on request. The HEEU Resource Centre is not a lending facility, however there is photocopying available. HEEU publications are available from the Resource Centre and we hope to make Equality Authority and AHEAD information leaflets and publications available through the Resource Centre in the near future. An information Update on the materials received by the Resource Centre is circulated to the educational education e-mail discussion list on a weekly basis.
The HEEU Resource Centre is open to all members of the public. Since its official opening visitors have included researchers, students, representatives of community organisations and those working on developing equality policies and initiatives in the colleges. Issues under investigation included access to education, issues affecting refugees and asylum-seekers, disability and employment, minority ethnic groups and education, mature students and gender and education.
If you would like any further information about the Resource Centre or to arrange a visit please contact Olive at (021) 4902167 or heeu@ucc.ie
Link to photographs of the opening of the new HEEU offices.