Reimagining our Collections

byReimagining our People Sinéad Keogh CONUL 2015

Or:How We

Learned To Stop

Worrying About Lack

Of Resources To Create Our First Online

Exhibition

Hard times

Less People → deliver AND improve services

Libraries are good at sharing

So what makes us distinct and unique?

Special Collections & Archives

Local and National importance

Tour stop for VIPs

… expensive house guests

Armstrong ArchiveDonated 1999 by Susan and Graham Armstrong.

50,000 items (incl. over 13,000 photographs).

350 years of family history of the Armstrongs of

Moyaliffe Castle and related families.

Administrative and estate records

Private correspondence and diaries

Early eighteenth-century sermons

Photographs

First hand account of life at home in Moyaliffe and Folkestone by the family

First hand account from WW1 theatres by Captain ‘Pat’ Armstrong

197 Boxes ≡ 60 linear metres = €

Landed estatesLaw and Theology interestLocal and Family historyWW1 historians

What if???

Meanwhile…

New Head of Department Technical & Digital Services New workflowsNew focusNew technologies - Book sorter, PDA, Shelf-ready books, digitisation equipment

Mighty Morphin TDS

Collection Services

DigitisationTrain the TrainerPeer SupportSpecialisation

In-house Handling Archival Material training

JISC Digital Imaging BTEC

3 daysImage CaptureImage ManipulationMetadata & Copyright

© ®™

xMaternity leave cover in Special CollectionsCrossover with digitisationExposure to collectionsA different perspective

And after all that

Kate O’Brien festival

Exhibition experience and using digitisation

Yes we can

Image from Barrak Obama Plaza, Moneygall http://barackobamaplaza.ie/

Blog style suited the materialChose WordPress but needed to upskill

$50Online

For 2 WeeksSun-Wed-Fri-Sun-Wed-Fri

…but it’s just for girls

Week 1Monday 29th June 2014

www.longwaytotipperary.ul.ie

Introduction, diary entries, pictures…

Letters, cameos, links to more information…

Invitations, articles, love triangles…

Documents, telegrams, anything and everything

Non-Armstrong Archive items

Bells

Map following the Armstrong Family during the war

Timeline of WW1 events

& Whistles

EngagementAnalytics since 29th June 2014Followers give feedbackUsers fill gaps and make correctionsFollowed, subscribed, Liked

ReflectionAutomationWork in batchesRefresh interfaceLower impact

HTML in-house training

Benefits

New skillsEstablished workflows and processesExperience for future exhibitionsStaff see fruits of labourArmstrongs are good tenants

… and then the President called

Challenges

Expected content and time to be big problems

Site maintenance

Responsibility to audience

Promotion and social media

Digital LibraryArchival Management System

Exhibitions (Decade of Centenaries)

Future

Cataloguing & MetadataMODS records from MARC and Finding Aids and AMSClean up imported records

NDAI70 Collections

By Shannon Development (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 )], via Wikimedia Commons at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AShannon_Development_Logo.jpg

GENERIC MOTIVATIONAL POSTER A Library is More than a Collection of Books

Hope you visit the site – feedback and ideas always welcomeHope you look at what you have in a different wayHope you get some ideas to exploit your own uniqueness

@ww1ul

Thanks to the teamSpecial Collections & Archives, Technical & Digital Services,

Administration

Thank you for listening