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In the Spring 2009 issue of Art Documentation, in an article titled “Archiving 2.0: Problems, Possibilities, and the Expanding Role of Librarians,” Sue Maberry, Director of the Library and Instructional Technology at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California addressed the archival issues associated with web 2.0. (Full article available through subscription only. You can read the abstract here.) As more and more content is created on the web, how do we preserve it? Many of these technologies are meant to be ephemeral, so should we even attempt to archive them? I think these are issues a lot of libraries and archives struggle with, but few resolve.
For Otis College of Art and Design, the key was to put the library at the forefront of new technologies and teaching and learning initiatives at the school and to begin archiving right from the start. A few grants and some brilliant, techie, fresh-out-of-library-school librarians also helped the process.
In her article, Maberry writes:
“The TLC funding excited everyone. Faculty and students created and used e-portfolios. Some began experimenting with wikis…Blogging was embraced…Flash learning objects were created. We acquired land in Second Life and began building. Students designed virtual art exhibitions…Art historians and social scientists experimented with audio and enhanced podcasts…Many faculty members became interested in making video “learning objects” for their courses.”
They really did it all. And with tools like CONTENTdm and DIGIcation, they have been able to preserve some of this content.
All of this is great, but my question is, how did they get the students and faculty to participate? What did they do to market the initiatives? When I go to the Otis College of Art and Design Library (aka The Millard Sheets Library) website now, there is no mention of these web 2.0 activities. There is, however, a Meebo chat widget and a YouTube tour of the library (see video below), two more web 2.0 technologies. (Is there anything web 2.0 the Otis College of Art and Design Library hasn’t experimented with?)
It would appear that while the library is the key player in the web 2.0 exploration at Otis, the initiative supports the entire school. The undergraduate admissions page includes links to Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. And the webpage on Technology and Learning is where they’ve hid the rest. Perhaps they would get even more interest by putting some of these links on the Library’s homepage.
When I interned with the Art Librarian at the University of Minnesota (check out my first post on creating a blog), one of my regular tasks was collection management. Every week I got to go down to technical services to approve the books that arrived through approval plans, and I got to weed through slips and order books from catalogs too. It was always interesting to see the new load. So many beautiful, inspiring art books–and I got first dibs on checking them out. However, I was always a bit unsettled after reviewing or ordering books, knowing that in a couple weeks, after a short stint on the new book shelf, hidden among the other humanities and social science texts, these book treasures would disappear into the ether–aka, the stacks.
Since the art history, fine arts, and performing arts collections at the UofM were all lumped in the main library, it was especially difficult to draw attention to new acquisitions, either physically or online, which was one reason I was asked to start a blog. The architecture and landscape architecture books, however, were luckier, as they had their own library home, and a large new books table on which to be displayed.
In the case of Indiana University-Bloomington‘s Fine Art Library, it is a physically separate library so they can prominently display new books, and they do have their own website where they can also advertise recent arrivals, so that is just what they have done. And they have done it using a web 2.0 tool, Library Thing.
On the library’s homepage there is a link to New Books tag cloud. When you click on it, you are directed to the tag cloud with an introduction notifying you that here you can view up to 200 of the most recent books received by the library in the last few weeks. Currently, Architecture, Exhibitions, Painting, and Photography appear to be the most populated categories. When you click on a category, you are directed to the IU Fine Arts Library’s Library Thing page, where you see a list of all of the titles with that particular tag, as well as the call number for that item. While I had known about it, I had never used Library Thing prior to my discovery of it on the IU Fine Arts Library page. It really is quite intuitive. Entries even link to WorldCat and various citation formats, which is really convenient. If I become a member of Library Thing, I can even add these books to my personal library or wishlist.
I’d say the IU Fine Arts Library’s experiment with Library Thing is a success. While it may be interesting for students to browse, I think it would be especially helpful to art history and architecture professors who study a particular subject, such as Islamic art. They can stay up to date on library acquisitions by just clicking on that category in the tag cloud. It’s also a great way for faculty and students to see what categories are lacking, and they can then request books to suit their needs.
In addition to Library Thing, the IU Fine Arts Library uses reference chat and an Add This widget that allows users to bookmark or share the Library’s website via a number of web 2.0 tools.
pARTicipation 