leveraging exhibitions as a needs-based skill development program in libraries: a case study
TRANSCRIPT
LEVERAGING EXHIBITIONS AS SKILL
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN LIBRARIES
Sara Sterkenburg Vanderbilt University @trisaratop
#vandyexhibits
CONSIDER….
• HOW DO YOU SEE EXHIBITIONS?
– PROBABLY AS END-‐PRODUCTS
Exhibit at the Paris Island Museum, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina By U.S. Marine Corps [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
EXHIBIT THEME DETERMINED
CURATORS SELECTED
TIMELINE & TRAININGS DEVELOPED
TRAINING
RESEARCH BEGINS
SELECTIONS REFINED, FINALIZED
ARTIFACTS SCANNED / PHOTOGRAPHED
METADATA & DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS WRITTEN
EDITING TEXTS /METADATA
CASE LAYOUTS
COPYRIGHT REQUESTS
INSTALLATION
BUDGET APPROVAL
BUILD TOUCHSCREENS & WEBSITE
PROGRAMMING
GRAPHIC DESIGN & PUBLICITY
CONSIDER….
• HOW SHOULD WE SEE EXHIBITIONS?
– END-‐PRODUCTS
– PROCESSES
2010-2013 SEASONS:
Training Train curators in how to research in the special collecZons library
# of Scans About 200-‐300 /curator
Curators’ Zme researching 2-‐4 weeks
Format Spreadsheet
Controlled Vocabs None
Technology and Tools Used Microsoa Excel to keep track of items, only used fields like creator, date, and Ztle to describe items. Was “core-‐team” friendly, not curator friendly. Everyone used same sheet -‐ prone to human error
Metadata Title, Date, Creator, DescripZon
Copyright N/A
Schema N/A
DocumentaZon N/A
WHAT WE NEEDED:
• Heightened transparency • Versioning Control • More efficient metadata creaZon
• Higher-‐fidelity metadata in XML format • Befer way to track and edit descripZons • Help with copyright • More Zme spent refining selecZons & fewer unnecessary scans
….it’s a big list!
THE WAY FORWARD
• Special CollecZons + Scholarly CommunicaZons
• “By vigorously adding and effecZvely bringing scholarly communicaZon and special collecZons into the mainstream of our work, we have two interconnected and very viable opportuniZes to transform ourselves…Virtually all special collecZons decisions should consider scholarly communicaZon issues. Likewise, interacZons with faculty and researchers should leverage both special collecZons and scholarly communicaZon and such conversaZons should include these elements as normaZve”
• Tom Wall, University Librarian, Boston College
EXHIBIT THEME DETERMINED
CURATORS SELECTED
TIMELINE & TRAININGS DEVELOPED
TRAINING
RESEARCH BEGINS
SELECTIONS REFINED, FINALIZED
ARTIFACTS SCANNED / PHOTOGRAPHED
METADATA & DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS WRITTEN
EDITING TEXTS /METADATA
CASE LAYOUTS
COPYRIGHT REQUESTS
INSTALLATION
BUDGET APPROVAL
BUILD TOUCHSCREENS & WEBSITE
PROGRAMMING
GRAPHIC DESIGN & PUBLICITY
Revamp key areas by adding in tools that support digital humaniZes and
scholarly communicaZons
EXHIBITIONS TOOLKIT
Storytelling
CollaboraZon
Visual Design
PROBLEM!
• Despite it’s persistent track as a primary need and focus for the future of special collecZons, people are inZmidated by scholarly communicaZons and aren’t always given tools to figure out how to begin on their own
WE HAVE A CRISIS IN TRAINING
TRAINING: PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
• We should be teaching new skills in project-‐based environments
• Key components to its success are: – making sure that learning outcomes and goals are stated at the beginning
– Ensuring that individual success is requisite for team success-‐ build in collaboraZon and team co-‐dependence
EXHIBITS: A SOLUTION?
• Timeline great for project-‐based learning: 4-‐6 month curatorial season
• Affords working with special collecZons & scholarly communicaZons
• ParZcipants take creaZve ownership over a topic that will have an presence in the library for a year
• Everyone works collaboraZvely with a team to make it the project happen
SCHEMA
• VRA Core 4.0: a data standard released by the Visual Resources AssociaZon
• Used to describe works of visual culture as well as the images that document them
CollecZon
Work
Image
One-‐to-‐many One-‐to-‐many
One-‐to-‐many
One-‐to-‐many
CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES
• Our program requires that specific fields are controlled: agent, worktype, locaZon, subject
• Requires using any/all of: – Library of Congress
• Name Authority File • Subject Headings
– Gefy Thesauri • Art & Architecture Thesaurus • Union List of ArZsts Names • Thesaurus of Geographic Names
– Developing local vocabulary for names that cannot be found/traced
XML & OXYGEN
• XML – Well-‐formedness vs. validity (DTDs, Schemas)
• oXygen – Saving and intending; validaZng; other features
GIT
• Git is an open-‐source version control system developed by Linus Trovalis
• Lots of features, many of which similar soaware lack: – Branching and merging – Distributed – meaning mulZple backups – It’s Fast – Data Assurance – nothing can be removed or edited without Git knowing about it – means a full history of the repository and every change is always recorded
– Staging Area – experimentaZon branch built in to allow you to work on something without affecZng the master files
GITHUB
• Built using Git, with additional features & community aspect – Free Organizational Accounts for Education: hfps://educaZon.github.com/
– Two components: • Web Client: Github.com
• Desktop Client: MAC / Windows
PROJECT MANAGEMENT Graphs provide analyZcs into how team is doing (e.g. leaderboard)
Issues provide way to request changes or edits. They can be tracked, commented on, and managed outside of email
CREATIVE COMMONS - ZERO
• License means “No copyright reserved”: dedicates all rights to the public domain and does not require afribuZon of any kind
• All Vanderbilt ExhibiZon metadata is released with this license: we don’t own facts – we simply took the Zme to record it
OPEN METADATA ON GITHUB
“With the growing Digital HumaniZes field, there is increasing value in scholars being able to ‘see’ a collecZon at a macro, zoomed out level – something which just isn’t possible with search interfaces. Likewise the release of such data under liberal licenses or to the public domain brings closer a future in which cross-‐insZtuZonal discovery is the norm …
“Philosophically, too, the public release of collecZon metadata asserts, clearly, that such metadata is the raw material on which interpretaZon through exhibiZons, catalogues, public programmes, and experiences are built. On its own, unrefined, it is of minimal ‘value’ except as a tool for discovery. It also helps remind us that collec2on metadata is not the collec2on itself.”
– SEB CHAN, COOPER-‐HEWITT DESIGN MUSEUM hfp://labs.cooperhewif.org/2012/releasing-‐collecZon-‐github/
STORYTELLING
• Good storytelling requires: – Surveying the landscape – Refining selecZons to the fewest items that can accurately tell the basic facts of a story
– Filling in the gaps with interpreZve texts • Decisions and consideraZons: – Linear vs. Nonlinear – Mixing broad and precise details – Different types of media and technology – Keeping audience in mind – Thinking about the exhibiZon as a whole
DATA CURATION
• This exhibiZon model offers up responsible data management and curaZon, as defined here: – “The acZve and ongoing management of data through its life cycle of interest and usefulness to scholarship, science, and educaZon. Data curaZon acZviZes enable data discovery and retrieval, maintain its quality, add value, and provide for reuse over Zme, and this new field includes authenZcaZon, archiving, management, preservaZon, retrieval, and representaZon”
– University of Illinois School of Library and InformaZon Science hfp://www.clir.org/iniZaZves-‐partnerships/data-‐curaZon
Year 2010-‐2013 2014 2015
Training Only training was in conducZng research in special collecZons.
Training in VRA Core, Special CollecZons, basic Copyright, controlled vocabularies
VRA, oXygen, Github, versioning control, Copyright, Open Access, Agile project management, controlled vocabularies, storytelling and descripZve wriZng
# of Scans 500 items scanned 100-‐200 25-‐75 (depending on size of exhibit)
Schema None VRA Core 4.0 VRA Core 4.0
Format Spreadsheet Spreadsheet / no true XML XML
Controlled Vocabs
None AAT, LCSH, LCNAF & others as necessary
AAT, LCSH, LCNAF & others as necessary
Technology and Tools
Used Microsoa Excel to keep track of items, only used fields like creator, date, and Ztle to describe items
Used Microsoa word oXygen, Github, and opZonal applicaZons such as ATOM editor,
Cost of Tools 0 0 $100 oXygen license/curator
Skills learned
CuraZng, MS Excel, project management
previous year’s PLUS: using controlled vocabularies, some copyright, project management, storytelling
Github, open access, XML, oXygen, VRA Core 4.0, markdown, controlled vocabularies, data curaZon, version control, project management, copyright
Copyright No copyright research was done.
Discussed in meeZngs Taught a class on copyright
ROADBLOCKS: EXAMPLE A
• ROADBLOCK: A substanZal percentage of curators struggled with XML encoding
• TROUBLESHOOTING: Worked with systems librarian to build a CSS stylesheet that could become an alternate view in oXygen – allowing curators the opZon to enter metadata into a form that sZll output to XML
ROADBLOCKS: EXAMPLE B
• ROADBOCK: This was the first year we asked curators to supply evidence of copyright research directly in their XML; many were wrong or misunderstood what we wanted
• TROUBLESHOOTING: While ediZng XML, looked at this field extra closely and made changes as necessary before copyright permissions were requested
ROADBLOCKS: EXAMPLE C
• ROADBOCK: Allowing curators direct-‐commit access resulted in a lot versioning problems. Those who failed to sync regularly ran into confusing merge errors, creaZng substanZal problems for data management
• TROUBLESHOOTING: Not much we can do now, but we will require curators to work from working branch directories in future years
TAKEAWAYS
• CollaboraZve projects are the best way to learn new skills • Librarians should be creaZng content • Quality mafers
– Quality training and investment produces quality results
• The best outcomes are arZculated at the beginning – Set low barriers to entry: focus on improvement, not perfecZon
– Show examples of how the new knowledge will affect the workplace
TAKEAWAYS
“When I sat down for the training workshops at the beginning of the exhibit season, I was not on board. I was okay with the curator part, but not the technology. I kicked and screamed the whole Zme. But just last week, I wrote an EAD for a French collecZon with our liaison librarian and we flew through it”
“I found all of this very overwhelming when I first started -‐ a lot of it was new for me. But now that I’ve gone through it, I’m reeling with ideas on how I could have done a befer job and hope to be involved next year to get that chance. ”
TAKEAWAYS
• “Being promiscuous will not be easy for the sector. It will require approaching our work in new ways, taking on a greater responsibility, and counZng our digital audiences as unique and different from our physical ones … promiscuous sharing is a way of finally delivering on the ambiZons of those Enlightenment thinkers who dreamed of universal knowledge diffusion. There’s already an audience out there, one potenZally numbering in the billions, who might use the content we set free.”
– Ed Rodley, The Virtues of Promiscuity via Medium.com, July, 2014 hfps://medium.com/code-‐words-‐technology-‐and-‐theory-‐in-‐the-‐museum/the-‐virtues-‐of-‐promiscuity-‐cb89342ca038
• Just try it
FORK OUR REPO & TRY IT!
• hfps://github.com/HeardLibrary/exhibiZons
• See documentaZon for our training workshops, check out our wiki, the leaderboard, and of course all the metadata!
• Be promiscuous!
• Email me anyZme: [email protected]
• THANK YOU!