Presented at the CONUL Conference, July 2015, Athlone, Ireland by Barry Houlihan, NUI Galway Abstract "Learning through encountering is a widening facet for archive collections and their users at present. Through teaching, independent research, online publication and exhibition of material as well of the digitised artefact, the integration of unique collections into the learning space is affording new opportunities and possibilities for projecting the archive to a new and widening user base. This is part of the commitment in developing user experience of learning through engagement in an embedded manner with unique archival collections. From subject areas of theatre, literature, Northern Ireland conflict and society, the geography and culture of the West of Ireland, among others, this talk will explore the changing presence of archives as and in research from undergraduate to postgraduate and academic research and teaching, through digital and traditional means. Shifting methods of engagement, through cataloguing standards and access to finding aids, key-word cataloguing, digital access, linked-collections for research, outreach and advocacy, are all facilitating greater awareness of collections among researchers but also an awareness of the strategies and benefits of archival usage in research through various media. With such increasing volumes of material, data and modes of access, a greater emphasis must also come in mediating that deluge for the user. Recent developments has seen the archives and archive service of the Hardiman Library become research partners with academic teaching, projects and planning but with the archivist as mediator between information content and user engagement. These interventions are key to ensuring relevancy of archives in research, at a time where we are witnessing a redefining of engagement Libraries and their services among users. Archive literacy, being the skillset of the researcher when encountering, navigating and utilising the collection content in varying media and format is also undergoing a radical change. This paper will address these current questions and issues and highlight the work of information professionals as curators of unique collections and the role of mediation between researcher and object. " Biography Barry Houlihan is an archivist at the James Hardiman Library at National University of Ireland, Galway, where he has catalogued the archives of Professor Kevin Boyle, Human Rights Academic, Lawyer and Activist; the archive of Druid Theatre Company; the Galway Arts Festival, and others. He is a Project group member of the Abbey Theatre Digitisation Project. Barry’s interests include promoting new ways of engagement with archives, archives in research and digital access to collections. He is also currently working on a Phd focusing on the memory and archival record of theatre, politics and society in the 1960s and 1970s.”

1. ‘From the Cloud to the Reading Room’:
Mediating User Experience of Archival
Collections in Research
.
Barry Houlihan
Archivist, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway

2. Overview
Archives
&
Research
Collection
Management
Digital &
Material
Objects
Archival
Literacy
Teaching
Learning
Research

3. Strategic Visions for Archives
NUI Galway Strategic Plan
2015-2020 launched March ’15
Ambitious plans to greatly
increase research output,
citations, international
population and global ranking.
Direct mention of Library &
Archives but wider indirect
references via research profiling

4. James Hardiman Library
• 25% of the student body coming from outside Ireland.
• The University plans to develop a major Industry and
Innovation Hub and lead Galway’s bid for European Capital
of Culture 2020.
• The University has prioritised five cross–disciplinary research
themes - Humanities in Context, including Digital
Humanities; Informatics and Data Analytics.
• High rate of student retention maintained at 84%

5. “Some of Ireland’s most iconic cultural, political and historical
figures and organisations have entrusted us with preserving and
interpreting their archives: our work with the Abbey Theatre to
create the world’s largest digital theatre archive is a landmark
project in this area.”
- NUI Galway Strategic Plan 2015-2020

6. Measures:
• Embedded graduate attributes at both undergraduate and
postgraduate levels
• Research-led teaching
• High-quality research
• Measurable impact
• Archives an embedded partner in teaching & research

7. Mediating the (Digital) Archive
• Meeting changing user expectations – exploring the point
where ‘Hardiman Library’ meets ‘Digital Library’
• Archive literacy, digital literacy and pedagogical development
• Balance the focus between the material format and the digital
content of the archive
• New opportunities to increase usage and integrate wider
digital and non-digital collections into research
School Institute Name to go here

8. Managing the Archive
- What is Changing?
Archiv(es)/ists
Types of Records
Place of Access
Methods of Preservation
Means of Conservation
Ethics in Access
Interdisciplinary Research
Collaborative Data Sharing
Users
Expectations
Instant Access
Secure
Totality of material (?)
Commercially exploitable
Digitally malleable
Methods of Dissemination
James Hardiman Library

9. Archives Supporting Research
James Hardiman Library

10. Learning Through Encountering
- Digital and Material Together
• Integration of mixed media sources
• Aware of varying levels of experience of each user group
• Material and digital together can enhance learning
• Developing the digital learner as well as the digital material

12. Interdisciplinary research – Linking Archives
Northern Ireland – Boyle/Duddy/O’Brádaigh
archives

13. Boyle, Northern Ireland &
Abbey Theatre –
New Understandings of the
Conflict

14. Linked Collections: Robinson, De Buitléar,
Balfour
James Hardiman Library
Landscape, People, Culture
- Documenting the West

15. Training and Engagement
• Focus on training on using and understanding the database –
creating self-sufficient users:
– One-to-one information sessions
– Group Training
– Embedded training as part of tutorial/lecture
Modules:
“The Abbey Theatre Digital Archive”
“Discover the Archives”
Archivist-developed module on research and archives –
Coming Soon!

16. Module Aim
This module will allow students to develop critical and independent
research skills, interpretive skills, contextual analysis and digital
research strategies through usage of archive and primary source research
material.
Module Overview
Students will experience an innovative and stimulating introduction to
the theory and practice of archives and records management, from
historic records to the digital age, the importance of records and
archives and their impact in society, interrogating and trusting archives,
linking archives for research and develop new learning techniques and
experiences through handling, examining and discovering archival
materials
James Hardiman Library

17. Potential (Draft!) Outline and Topics:
• Introduction to Archives
• Relevance of Archives in Society: Accountability and
Archives as Evidence / Evidence as Archives
• Irish Writing, Irish Writers: John McGahern
• Citizens, Streets and Stages: Irish Theatre Archives
• Archiving the West: Culture, Language, People &Landscape
• Archives of Conflict: Northern Ireland in Context
• From Page to Screen: The Digital Repository
• Linking Archives for Research

18. Archivist as Teacher:
How to use, approach & understand archives
The Archives and Reading Room as continuation of the
learning/research cycle.
Lecture Room - > Assignments -> Reading Room/Archivist ->
1st question is always “What do you have ….”
Active role in teaching users HOW to research
James Hardiman Library

19. Mixed-media archival research in action

20. Being Visible in Research
- Aiding Citations/User Friendly Usage

21. Designing an Outreach Programme -
Maximise OUR Strengths
• Exhibitions: Performing Ireland: 1904-2014.
The first exhibition to come from the Abbey Theatre Digital
Archive Project

22. Exhibition: Yeats and The West
Coming June 2015
Digital and Material Exhibition

23. Conference: Performing the Archive
22-24 July 2015, NUI Galway

24. From The Cloud to the Reading Room – A
Bumpy Journey?
Improving User Experience in Abbey Theatre
Digital Archive
• Streamlined log-in process for Campus ID holders
• Various zoom function for outsize material
• Tagging of individual press files to specific productions
• Scroll-through pages for large files (instead of page-by-page
turn)
Comments and Suggestions still arriving:
Tagging of letters and correspondence
Transcription of manuscript material

25. Archival Collections and Research:
- Facing the Future
• Users increasingly digital natives / born-digital collections
• Open access expectations
• User-driven demand for digitally malleable material
• Multi-functional publishing – digital, open access, data
• Training in archive literacy and discovery methodologies –
‘smart searching’
• Increase in archivist-led teaching
Emphasise not WHICH collection you use in research, it’s the
idea of USING Collections is what matters!

26. Thank You & Stay in Touch!
@Nuigarchives
http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/archives/