Colin Wight, British Library: Cambridge Libraries Conference 2013

MAKING A DIFFERENCEwith online exhibitions

Colin Wight

Web EditorThe British Library

9 January 2013

Introductory remarks…

From my perspective, not intended to be corporate boasting!

Not a blueprint for success, but about what we’ve learned so far

It helps to work in a permissive culture where you can dip a toe in the water

It also helps to discuss your ideas within a team

I hope some of our experiences will be of interest and of value

Online resources linked to physical exhibitions

‘Henry VIII Man and Monarch’: Summer 2009

Website did not attract as many users as we had hoped, but…

Curator’s Blog had 56 posts = 3 every week; 20,000+ views during the exhibition

Lots of podcasts, which had thousands of downloads each month

Online resources linked to physical exhibitions

‘Points of View’: Winter 2009

Website did not attract as many users as we had hoped, but there were more comments

Curator’s Blog was a great success, owing to a man on a bike with a camera

‘London 1870s and now’ was dreamed up by the web team and added to the exhibition at last minute!

Using a Google map & ‘locative messaging’

Online resources linked to physical exhibitions

‘Magnificent Maps’: Summer 2010

Curator’s Blog was actually written by the curator; a first!

Just 4 maps from the exhibition, with deep zoom & hotspots

Perhaps less can be more

Stephen Walter’s ‘The Island’ went viral...!

Online resources linked to physical exhibitions

‘Evolving English’: Winter 2010

Three curators now writing the blog…

Lots of podcasts

Map your Voice: a genuine crowd-sourcing research project

Twitter came along at just the right time for us

A near fatal dose of Mr Tickle

Online resources linked to physical exhibitions

‘Royal Manuscripts’: Winter 2011

Curators’ Blog already running before the exhibition opened

Decision to build the exhibition in Facebook albums… reaching a secondary audience

A very nice iPad app

And Turning the Pages online – showing beautiful books as well as we can

Online resources linked to physical exhibitions

‘Writing Britain’: Summer 2012

Not very visual, so only a few key items on the web pages

All about showcasing the physical exhibition, which was priced (during the Olympics…)

Pin-a-Tale: a genuine crowd-sourcing research project?

Moderately successful, in a format we can re-use – surprisingly hard to scope in terms of usability

In conclusion: a few points to consider

Fragmentation – do your exhibition objects integrate with others on your site and elsewhere, so they can be cross-searched, and with similar tools (such as zoom, share)?

Rise of the blog / Facebook etc. – you could build your online exhibition without a website

Copyright and licensing of images: do you have an access and reuse policy? CC BY, Public Domain?

SEO – do the images have alt tags, keywords?

Teamwork – do the ‘curators’ respect ‘marketing’?