Presented at CONUL conference, May 2018, Galway, Ireland

1. NUI Galway’s multi-stranded
Archives Engagement Strategy
Niall McSweeney
Head Of Research and Learning
James Hardiman Library

2. Advocacy, support and Engagement
 University Management Team
- new building
- seeing value of archives
 Archives Strategy Committee
- reviews policy, formal oversight
 Marketing and Press Office will promote or help us promote
 Everything combined helps us attract key collections
 Such as the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, Muintir Na Tire, Abbey
and Gate and Conradh na Gaeilge, Dominican Convent ( Galway)

3. Archives Strategy Committee
 Library staff
 Chair, Director of Moore Institute
 Directors of other Research Institute
 Academic Secretary
 University Secretary
 Senior academics

4. Overall structure
 Service started in 1998
 Archives Working Group becomes Archives Strategy Group
 Engage research, support academic programmes, links with community
 Monica Crump = Collections
 Niall McSweeney = Engagement
 Peter Crump = Digital Collections
 60% Archivist time = engagement

5. Realising our strengths
 Unparalleled strength in Irish theatre and literary archives
 Digitisation experience with Abbey Digital Theatre Archive
 Customer focused engagement – very proactive house style
 World leader in some areas such as John McGahern
 Passion and pride is at core of what we do
 Encouraging dialogue through programme of public events
 A strong commitment to societal engagement - President’s Awards for Societal
Impact – collections, people, facilities, passion and talent

6. Building
 Beautiful Reading Room
 Teaching room/rooms
 Dedicated Exhibition Space – archives, also public exhibition space
 Video wall

7. Special Collections
 Lunchtime lecture series – illustrative talk connecting to Special Collections from
areas such as anatomy, zoology
 Annual Seminar ‘Outside the Walls: Researchers in the community’
 ‘An Illustrated Guide to Special Collections’ produced by Marie Boran, highlighting
our treasures
 Supporting Heritage Week

8. Use of our collections
 Strong usage based on collections strength
 Theatre, film, performing arts, literature, history and politics, Irish Language
 Abbey Digital Theatre Collection
 Visiting college groups from Oxford, Wisconsin, Villanova, Berkeley
 Usage growing about 10% last year

9. Publications
 Over 50 publications based on our collections since 2014
 Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre
 Several other publications have drawn on collections e.g.
Atlas of The Irish Revolution, John Crowley
27 in 2017 alone
 Book launches:
- Judging Shaw, Fintan O Toole (Royal Irish Academy)
- Touchstones: John McGahern’s Classical Style, Prof. Frank Shovlin
(Liverpool University Press)
 - Navigating Ireland's Theatre Archive, Barry Houlihan (ed.) Oxford. Peter Lang

10. Some other publications
 Marie Boran, “James Hardiman : Nineteenth – century scholar and mayo man” in
Cathair na Mart: Journal of the Westport Historical Society, no 35, 2017
 John Cox, The Abbey Theatre Digital Archive: a digitization project with dramatic
impact Insights. 30(3), 2017
 Barry Houlihan. The ballad of the wild ginger man (JP Donleavy). RTE Brainstorm,
December 2017
 Many others

11. Media – facilitating wider discourse
 ARTS TONIGHT – RTE radio 1 = interviews with Tim Robinson, Jean Ritchie
 Book Show – Radio 1 = John McGahern and his archive
 RTE BRAINSTORM – In Praise of Archiving amongst others
 DUICHE – TG4 = Abbey Digital Theatre
 Regular TG4 news items
 Pat Kenny Show – Newstalk FM = Yeats and the West
 Local media such as Galway Bay, FM
 Living the wildlife – RTE = Eamon De Buitlear collection
 Irish Times – frequent – e.g. Arden/D’Arcy
 CELTIC REVIVAL – RTE = Michael Cusack papers

12. Social media and communications
 Strong engagement
 Images used in NUI Galway promotional videos
 NUI Galway Archives Blog
 NUI Galway Archives on Twitter
 Use of podcasting and videos

13. Marketing Calendar
 Devised by library, archivist, marketing and research staff
 Open Days
 Conferences
 Event within University and wider community
 Connections and plans right through
 Continuing brochure pieces for major opening of new O Donoghue Centre for
Drama, Theatre and Performance
 We publish an annual review each year

14. February 6 February. Postgraduate Open Day
16 February. Women in History Conference (see 7-8 June also?)
24 February-2 March. Engineers Week (O’Shaughnessy archive?)
Archives in Research seminar (NM/BH)
March 1 March. Ireland Illustrated Database launch
1-17 March Seachtain na Gaeilge (launch of Irish-language archives brochure)
5-9 March. Múscailt
8 March. International Women’s Day
8-9 March. AUDGPI Conference, 'Evidence in General Practice' (Freyer archive?)
14 March. Fourth Annual Jean Ritchie lecture (Arts in Action)
24 March. Open Day
Archives in Teaching seminar (NM/BH)
Dominican Library launch and seminar (JC/MB)

15. Collaborations/Partnerships
 Academic partnership continuing and expanding, seeking new all the time
 Collections Interest Groups – Muintir na Tire
 MOORE Institute
 Centre for Drama, Theatre and Archives
 Arts in Action – e.g. Jean Ritchie, Lyric Theatre, Lelia Doolan
 Archives Strategy Committee
 School of Education – ‘Breaking the S.E.A. L.’
- engaging secondary school students
 Berkeley College – O Shaughnessy project
 Cultural bodies such as DRUID, GIAF
 Marketing and Communications, Press Office, Conference, President’s Office, Research Office

16. Events, Exhibitions
 Exhibitions – open to the public, exhibitions elsewhere (tom Murphy TCD)
 Culture Night – huge public engagement
 Postgraduate Open Days – stand, tours, presentations
 Collection Launch events – usually when archive accessible, sometimes earlier
 These open to public and get great engagement
 Arts in Action series e. g. Lyric Players, Siobhan McKenna
 Conference supports – mini-exhibitions, brochure, tours
 Archives , as part of Presidential events
 Book launches – e.g. Touchstones: John McGahern’s Classical Style, Frank Shovlin

17. exhibitions
 Performing Ireland – 1904 – 2014 – digital journey through Irish Theatre
 A University in War and Revolution 1913 – 1919
 Yeats and the West (150) – continuing impact
 Teaching within the exhibitions, off the exhibitions
 Connemara and Elsewhere (+ association book) Tim Robinson
 Path-breaking women
 Judging Shaw – Fintan O Toole and others
 Narratives, Archives and Memories
 Managing these in terms of invitees, catering etc.
 Promotion by our marketing staff

18. Seminars and conferences
Hosting
 Strong focus on linkage with conferences
 ‘Performing the Archive ‘in 2015
 Creating and exploiting Digital Collections seminar
 Annual Archives and Special Collections in research and teaching seminars
 Launch of Brendan Duddy Digital Archive, Kevin Boyle – associated academic seminars
 Co-exhibition with Russian State Art Library, Moscow – The Seagull from Chekhov - Kilroy
Participating
 SIBMAS – New York
 Arts, Peace and Conflict conference, Liverpool
 DPASSH (Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities0 a number of presentations

19. Visitors
 Scholars from Berkeley, Harvard, ,Exeter, Ankara, Oviedo, Warwick, Liverpool,
Austria, Australia and elsewhere
 Visiting Fellows – MOORE Institute scheme
 Groups from Princeton, Villanova, Notre Dame, Keene State, Tokyo University,
Buffalo
 About 22% of users external in 2017
 Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall amongst our distinguished visitors

20. Archives Literacy
 Innovative pedagogical foundations to our approach
 Engagement and learning with original items, use of digital platforms, multi-
dimensional exhibitions
 Graduate Research Information Skills
 Breaking the S. E. A. L.
 CONUL National Teaching and Learning Award for ‘Breaking the S.E. A. L.’
 An archivist developed module ‘Using Archives and Special Collections in Research’
module (4th year)
 MA in Digital Cultures
 MA in Abbey Digital Theatre Archive
 Others include: Ba in Childhood Studies, BA in Applied Social Sciences, Bas in English
and Media Studies, History of the Book, MA in Culture and Colonialism

21. Presentations
Some examples:
Over 50 between 2014 - 2017
 Archives and Special Collections staff widely engage through contributions to radio and tv
programmes, publications and lectures
 Heritage conferences
 New Voices Conference, NUI Galway, June 2014 (Kilroy and Abbey Archives)
 SIBMAS Theatre Archives Conference: Body, Mind, Artifact: Reimagining Collections, John Jay
College, New York, June 2014 (Abbey Theatre Digital Archive)
 Arts, Peace, Conflict Conference, Liverpool Hope University (Abbey, Lyric, Boyle, Duddy Archives)
 The Scholar/Activist or Activist/Scholar?, NUI Galway, November 2014 (Kevin Boyle)

22. Achievements
 Barry Houlihan, President SIBMAS (International association of Libraries, Museums,
Archives and Documentation Centres for the Performing Arts)
 Their annual conference in 2222
 Kieran Hoare represents us on the National Archives Advisory Council

23. Digitisation and online discovery
 Digital Preservation Policy
 Huge reach made possible by opening up access to collections, enhanced context and
functionality
 Abbey Digital Theatre Archive = over 500,000 pages
 Gate Theatre
 Druid Theatre Oral History Project
 User interface innovation, using Open Street Map for Tim Robinson Archive
 Archives exhibitions Digital Platform
 Michael O Shaughnessy IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)
 Brendan Duddy
 Digital Publishing (brown Bag) series

24. Looking to the future
 Strong base to build from
 Strong passion and interest by team
 Strong reputation
 Strong sense of partnership in place
 Strategic value of archives seen by University
 Wide public recognition
 Lasting impact

25. Looking to the future – our strategy
 More embedding of archives in academic programmes
 Linkage of bursaries to archives
 Maximising use of archives in publications
 Linking archives to University’s global reputation
 Meeting demand for digital access, while managing resourcing, access, rights,
metadata
 Engaging multiple audiences : leaders, funders, partners, users, public, collection
owners
 Active shaper of academic direction of the University
 ECOC 2020 European City of Culture