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Biography

Dr Fintan Bracken is part of the Centre for Organisational Research, Data and Analysis (CORDA) in the President’s Office in SETU. Fintan is involved in the development and analysis of data to support university planning, management and strategic activities. Prior to his current role, Fintan worked as Deputy Librarian in Institute Technology Carlow and previously worked as the Research Services and Bibliometrics Librarian in the University of Limerick for four years. He has also worked in the Marine Institute's research library and with IReL, the Irish Research eLibrary. In his library roles, Fintan provided advice to staff, researchers and students on publication strategy, bibliometrics, open access, reference management and maximising research impact. He has conducted research on bird biodiversity in various farmland, woodland and peatland habitats during his PhD and post-doctoral studies in University College Dublin. Before embarking on his library career, he worked as an environmental consultant with WYG Ireland / PH McCarthy Consulting Engineers from 2006 to 2010. In this role, he managed projects, co-ordinated Environmental Impact Statements, conducted ecological surveys, consulted with statutory authorities and prepared tender submissions for various large infrastructural developments.

Research Interests

Dr Bracken has conducted research on bird biodiversity in various farmland, woodland and peatland habitats during his PhD and post-doctoral studies in University College Dublin. During his PhD, he examined bird and butterfly diversity in agricultural land and woodland in Co. Laois and Co. Kildare. Remote sensing using fused Landsat IRS images were used to look at landscape structure in the areas around the six study sites. The project was funded as part of the EU project ‘BioAssess’ by the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme Project No. EVK2-CT1999-00280.

In 2006, Dr Bracken worked on the Environmental Protection Agency funded project ‘BOGLAND’ where he examined the bird communities of twelve sites throughout Ireland representing four peatland habitats: fen, raised bog, montane blanket bog and Atlantic blanket bog. During his MLIS studies, he worked on the capstone project entitled: “The usability and feasibility implications for biology and environmental science researchers of the OJAX++ Virtual Research Environment" with six other students. This project examined using OJAX++ to organise tags from social media into activity streams in order to aid knowledge sharing and collaboration among researchers.

His current research interests include institutional research, open access and bibliometrics.

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Koivula, M.J., Chamberlain, D.E., Fuller, R.J., Palmer, S.C.F., Bankovics, A., Bracken, F., Bolger, T., de Juana, E., Montadert, M., Neves, R., Rufino, R., Sallent, A., Silva, L.L.d., Leitao, P.J., Steffen, M. and Watt, A.D. (2018) 'Breeding bird species diversity across gradients of land use from forest to agriculture in Europe', Ecography, 41, 1331-1344, available: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.0329.

Bracken, F., Earls, D., Madders, C., O'Leary, F., Ronan, S., Ward, C., Tolan, P. and Wusteman, J. (2014) 'The potential use of online tools for scientific collaboration by biology researchers', Aslib Journal of Information Management, 66(1), 13-37, available: https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-02-2013-0009.

Bracken, F., McMahon, B.J. and Whelan, J. (2008) 'Breeding bird populations of Irish peatlands', Bird Study, 55(2), 169-178, available: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063650809461519.

Bracken, F. and Bolger, T. (2006) 'Effects of set-aside management on birds breeding in lowland Ireland', Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 117(2-3), 178-184, available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2006.03.032.

McMahon, B.J., Whelan, J., Bracken, F. and Kavanagh, B. (2003) 'The impact of farming on over-wintering bird populations', Tearmann - the Irish Journal of Agri-Environmental Research, 3, 63-72.

 

Book Chapter

Bracken, F. and Smiddy, P. (2012) 'Lowland bogs, fens and reedswamps' in Nairn, R. and O'Halloran, J., eds., Bird Habitats in Ireland, Cork: The Collins Press, 73-89.

 

Conference Presentations

Bracken, F. and Doyle, M. (2023) 'A 10-year study of equity of completion, non-progression and award attainment of law and accounting students in an Irish HEI', in Higher Education Institutional Research Network 16th Annual Conference (HEIR Network 2023), Kingston, UK, 08 Sep.

Bracken, F. (2018) 'Publishing a journal article: the why and the how', in L2L Seminar - Best Practice for Communicating Library Initiatives and Research: How to get Noticed, Carlow, 08 Nov.

Bracken, F. (2017) 'Getting credit: the story of the development of an accredited module of digital skills for PhD candidates', in CONUL Teaching & Learning Seminar 2017, Dublin, 16 Nov.

Bracken, F. (2017) 'Maximising and assessing research impact', in The 27th Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium (Environ 2017), Athlone, 10 Apr.

Bracken, F. (2015) 'Assessing research impact: bibliometrics, citations and the h-index', in Mary Immaculate College Research Day, Limerick, 01 Sep.

Bracken, F. and Healy, A. (2015) 'Getting the measure of analytics: using bibliometrics and usage statistics to evaluate e-journals', in LAI Academic & Special Libraries Annual Conference, Dublin, 27 Feb.

Bracken, F. (2014) '5 ways to increase the impact of your research!' [poster], in UL Hospitals Annual Research Symposium 2014, Limerick, 24 Oct, available: http://ulir.ul.ie/handle/10344/4125.

Bracken, F. (2014) 'Publication strategy: helping academics to increase the impact of their research', in CONUL / ANLTC Seminar "Supporting the activities of your research community – issues and initiatives", Dublin, 03 Dec.

Bracken, F. (2013) ‘Measuring the value of e-resources’, in Western Regional Section of the Library Association of Ireland (WRSLAI) Annual Seminar, Tuam, 17 Jun.

 

Published Reports

Geraghty, A., McSweeney, N., Quinn, C., Eustace-Cook, J., Kerrigan, C., Barrett, Julia, Murphy, P. and Bracken, F. (2014) CONUL Research Support Task and Finish Group: Briefing Document & Recommendations, Dublin: Consortium of National & University Libraries, available: http://www.conul.ie/media/CONUL_Research_Support_Briefing_Recomm_1Dec14.pdf [accessed 24 Sep 2019].

 

Other Research Outputs

Bracken, F. (2014) 'Measuring the value of e-resources', An Leabharlann - The Irish Library, 23(1), 4-11, available: http://hdl.handle.net/10344/3744.

Bracken, F. (2012) 'The value of the Open Access Repository to the Marine Institute', GLINT - the newsletter of the Government Libraries Section of the Library Association of Ireland, 19, 7-12.

  • Associate of the Library Association of Ireland (ALAI) – elected 2015
  • Past member of the Library Association of Ireland (LAI) Council – 2018 to 2023
  • Member of the organising committee for the 2019, 2021 (online) and 2023 LAI/CILIP Ireland Joint Annual Conference
  • Member of the organising committee for the 87th IFLA World Library and Information Congress attended by over 2,000 delegates in the Convention Centre Dublin, July 2022