Integrating Web 2.0 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Thomas J. Watson Library is the primary research library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2006, the library assembled a web 2.0 team to initiate web 2.0 technologies in the library and throughout the museum. Not only did they learn about and discover new tools, they also used these technologies to communicate with one another throughout the process, in order to get a feel for how these tools could be used, and which would be most appropriate for the museum setting. A lengthy slideshow of the process was posted on SlideShare (Note: The SlideShare presentation embedded in this post may not appear when using Firefox versions prior to 3.5 or Internet Explorer.)

Once the web 2.0 team selected a set of tools, they spread the word through the museum newsletter, email, flyers, meetings, and instructional classes, and over a period of four months, attracted the attention of over 250 staff members from 32 departments. They got overwhelmingly positive feedback and several staff members said they had never considered the use of these tools in a research context. Yes! Success!

The majority of their successful web 2.0 experiments were for internal use: the staff blog, Google Calendar seating chart, and Google Doc reference schedule, but the WordPress-built web portal with RSS, and Flickr photostream were also highly successful.

Since the primary users of the Watson Library are museum staff, these web 2.0 tools are a great addition to the system–they facilitate many forms of communication and research. But as an outside viewer, things look pretty dull (I’m not too interested in photos of the Watson Library Holiday Party or conference photos). Overall the tools are easy to use, and the incorporation of an RSS feed on the portal further improves the usability. I love it when information gets sent to my Google Reader so I don’t have to check dozens of blogs on a daily basis.