Niamh Ní Riain (National Library of Ireland)

The lightning talk will examine and discuss a number of aspects of outreach work within the National Library of Ireland. The opening section of the presentation will focus on the more challenging aspects of outreach. It will discuss dealing with screaming children and stroppy teenagers, resource constraints and perceptions of outreach.  The next section of the talk will use a workshop, delivered in 2017, to discuss how a collection from the NLI’s Prints and Drawings Department was used to introduce new, younger audiences to their National Library. The importance of digitised material in outreach work will also be discussed here. The final section of the presentation will reveal what we in the Outreach Department of the National Library of Ireland have learned from our experiences, and will give what we hope to be some useful tips and advice to the outreach practitioner.