Dr. Sandra Collins:

Early on, after I started, I was invited by the director of the National Library of Scotland to visit and do an information exchange. That was really illuminating. Since its foundation, the National Library of Ireland has been understaffed. It is a chronic, long-term issue. In the recession, the staff number decreased. The loss could have been up to 30%. We are on an upward trajectory now, which is heartening.

We can feel the difference and the heart coming back in the staff on the ground. Staff-intensive areas include outreach and cataloguing. I have not seen the materials referred to, but I guess that we tweeted information about them or promoted them on social media. People love that, and to engage and see those original materials digitised and available to all. To get to that position, though, requires an expert and resource-intensive programme of work to catalogue the materials and then to digitise them to the standard that allows us to display them and preserve them in the long term. Some of our materials require conservation because the poor condition of some of our buildings makes them particularly vulnerable. This is an area where we could easily double our staff and see the attendant benefits produced quickly on the ground. The result would be more collection materials being available to researchers in the Reading Room, but we would also be able to share them nationally and globally. Teachers would be able to bring those materials into the classroom for children, have conversations about them and enjoy them.

We have high ambitions for outreach. The diversity and inclusion programme is an active one for us, and at the heart of it is welcoming people into the library, especially new people who have not visited us previously. It could also include people who see our beautiful but intimidating building. If somebody can meet people, bring them into the Reading Room and through the exhibition and give them that joy, pleasure and learning experience, then we find that we have regulars. People who have had that experience will come back and they will also tell their friends and family and bring people in with them. I would love to have more staff to undertake more of that type of personal introduction and engender a sense of welcome and inclusion.

We have seen great outcomes. Last year, 12,000 schoolchildren engaged with our exhibitions on Seamus Heaney and W. B. Yeats. The feedback from those activities has been unbelievable. If I am ever having a low day, I ask the team to send me the feedback we get from that programme because it is fabulous. If we could bring that experience to every school in the country, then I would be happy that we had done our job and that we could close our doors and have a day off for once.