Julie Edwards: Okay.
Julie Edwards: Hi, everyone. I see you all joining us. Welcome. We're going to get started in a few minutes here, but we'll take this time to just go ahead and have everybody
Julie Edwards: come in. Feel free to hop over to the chat if you would like, and say, Hi, tell us where you're from. We do publish the Chat Transcript. So if you don't want to use the chat you don't have to, but you are more than welcome to
Julie Edwards: pop over there. Let us know where you're joining us from.
Julie Edwards: hey? I so people are flooding, and New Jersey, Texas, Connecticut. North Carolina, Pennsylvania.
Julie Edwards: Well, lots of Texans. Hi! Hi! Montana! My state! Hey? Kentucky! I think I saw Wyoming in there. Hi, Wyoming.
Julie Edwards: all right. Oh, wow, Virginia Beach, this is a way. Hey? There is some. Oh.
Julie Edwards: I I just lost it! Oh, Vancouver! Washington! Hi!
Julie Edwards: Indiana! Florida! So many people Welcome, welcome! Hey, Charlton! I love seeing these librarians from
Julie Edwards: from my neck of the woods. I grew up in central Mass, not too far from Child Charlton.
Julie Edwards: Oklahoma, hey? Indiana.
Julie Edwards: Colorado, hey, Carl's bad
Julie Edwards: one of my favorite places
Julie Edwards: so nice to see so many joining you. There are lots of people joining today.
Julie Edwards: Hello, hello! We will get started in just a minute, but we're just getting some time to get settled here. The Washingtonians here today
Julie Edwards: so nice to see so many of you. Hey? Wisconsin?
Julie Edwards: I see, Maryland.
Julie Edwards: I wish there was something in zoom that would let me like, since just track like, are we getting like all of these States? I mean, Heck, we got Wyoming in here, where I started my my library life in Fremont County.
Julie Edwards: Hey, Ontario, hey? Toledo. Asheville, also one of my favorite places.
Julie Edwards: Yes, we do save the chat, Shelby. It's a good idea. We do save the chat. I should actually, I could just do a quick control f search and see like our getting all the States. Maybe I don't know All right. Librarian like I love that kind of like a random trivia.
Julie Edwards: So nice to see you, hey? Illinois
Julie Edwards: in North Carolina, Arkansas. Wow! We may be getting. Who's from Rhode Island here right now. Somebody from Rhode Island. I always think Wyoming and Rhode Island. They're always when I play the license plate games. Those are the 2 States I can hardly ever get
Julie Edwards: welcome. It is the top of the hour, and so we will go ahead and get started. My name is Julie Edwards. I'm. A librarian and instructional designer with Niche Academy, and we are here together today in this Webinar display it, Pick starting library, exhibit programs.
Julie Edwards: so we'll start in just a minute here, but we'll do a little bit of our standard housekeeping. I would like to start by introducing you all to Niche Academy. We are an easy to use all in one learning platform that helps libraries create and deliver effective training and measure learner success.
Julie Edwards: So our platform is the perfect tool. If you're looking to increase your E resource, usage, move programming, including your story times online and deliver and track training for staff development.
Julie Edwards: If you're interested in finding out more about our e-learning solution chatting with a member of our team, hearing what your colleagues in the library world. Say i'll drop a link to our website in the chat, and you can learn a bit more about us.
Julie Edwards: We are recording this session, and I will make the recording the slides, the Chat transcript, and the audio transcript available to everyone who is registered after the presentation.
Julie Edwards: So You'll get a direct link from me probably tomorrow or Friday, with all of that information in there, so you can just sit back and absorb everything that Paddy has to say today.
Julie Edwards: So a couple of zoom housekeeping things You can turn on the closed caption button at the bottom of your screen if you would like to use that.
Julie Edwards: Please feel free to chat with each other, share ideas and tips in the chat box we love that there's often a lot of great stuff that flows through the chat, which is why we save and share that transcript. If you have specific questions for the presenter, though please put those in the question and answer box. There are, we see, almost 500 of us in here right now, and i'm sure that will grow, and so I sometimes lose track of the chat.
So if you put your questions for Paddy in the question and answer box, i'll do my best to moderate that at the end of the Webinar.
Julie Edwards: This Webinar is part of a series. It focuses on our commitment to solve bigger problems together and provide continuing education in the library space. I am so happy to have so many of you joining us today. You can see more of our upcoming webinars and register for those I will drop the link to our blog with all that information into the chat.
Julie Edwards: So, without further ado, our presenter today is Paddy Gibbons.
Julie Edwards: Patty has preserved cultural heritage materials, developed exhibitions and registered loans in library and museum settings since the nineties, and is currently the head of collection management at the University of Chicago Libraries, Special Collections Research Center.
Julie Edwards: She holds an Ma. And Museum studies and an Ms. And Library and Information science, and I am absolutely thrilled to have her with us today. With that I will turn the Webinar over to Patty.
Patti Gibbons: Thanks so much, Julie, and and thanks a big shout out to the Niche Academy for having me today. It's wonderful to be here, and i'd also like to
just tell everybody i'm gonna switch off my video during the presentation. But i'll be back for the question and answer. It just helps me concentrate a little bit better, so i'm not staring at myself.
and
Patti Gibbons: let's see, I stopped that.
Teddy. How thank you.
Patti Gibbons: I'm going to get all my buttons collected. So today i'm going to talk about information that's covered in more detail in my book exhibits and display a practical guide for librarians. It was published by Roman and Littlefield, in 2,021,
Patti Gibbons: my writing partner and colleague Carol Ni. He and I both had first careers in museums before becoming librarians, and we recognize that the library field most people that are interested in exhibits
Patti Gibbons: It's often that out of interest, or it's an add on task that they take on. But they don't have formal training. So Carol and I wanted to write a book that helps detail and give it advice
Patti Gibbons: exhibits and displays. They are very similar. They help you promote collections and resources. They can help you create a buzz and be a hook for library services, and they can help you engage with your visitors
Patti Gibbons: exhibits and displays both play important roles at a library, and they appear similar, If but Phil. Philosophically and logistically, there are important distinctions between the 2 that I think are helpful for us to just articulate and think about
Patti Gibbons: displays tend to be smaller selections and materials that are gathered more as a show intel rather than a vehicle To tell a larger story.
Displays are great ways to showcase something that might be new, such as a new acquisition. It could be something to help you celebrate, say, a National Appreciation week, or to support something that's timely like the Olympics or Veterans Day or community celebration
Patti Gibbons: displays can also be art installations like a sculpture or a group of paintings that are on view for a short period of time. The turnaround time and prep for displays tends to be pretty swift. You can have pop ups, or you can position a case in a high traffic area that has rotating displays
Patti Gibbons: exhibits. On the other hand, Ha! Or a larger selection of materials with a deliberate story used to interpret history. Prompt thought, encourage action or reflection
Patti Gibbons: exhibit, should have clearly defined learning. Objectives, and not just be a collection of similar items.
Sometimes exhibits are immersive, and they might have interactive components.
Patti Gibbons: The prep. Time, of course, is longer and exhibit production can be complex with these for design fabrication, perhaps prototyping, marketing, promotion and evaluation.
Patti Gibbons: Why develop a formal program? Well, I guess mostly exhibits are a lot of work, and having, I think, having a framework for your program can be invaluable.
A formal, well-defined program can become a roadmap. It'll help you envision growth, support your future success, and deep in the positive impacts of your exhibit.
Patti Gibbons: Taking steps to formalize your program will help you direct your educational efforts. Help you set, can evaluate goals.
and a formal program will enable you to better understand your visitors and strengthen community engagement and partnerships
Patti Gibbons: key steps to starting or expanding a program
Patti Gibbons: starting an exhibit program from Scratch can seem daunting, but my advice really is, Act on your enthusiasm, and don't wait for perfection. You can refine your program over time, and as you try things out and gain experience and see what works for your library. You're going to pick up skills that help you do things better.
Patti Gibbons: Also take things in phases, map out your dream program and work step by step. It's hard to tackle everything at once. Also it's likely going to take you time
Patti Gibbons: to get buy in at your library, generate excitement, grow your audience base, and you might also need more funding, so it may take time to to really kick, start, or grow your program to your dream level.
Patti Gibbons: I say, just give yourself. Give yourself permission to experiment and try things out
Patti Gibbons: when you're setting the stage for success. There are things, I think, in the background that you need to get your pillars in position, and as an exercise I find it very helpful to just create a mission statement for your program, and it can be in just in simple terms of
Patti Gibbons: what you feel. Your program needs to be in my library. The mission of our exhibit program is to support the research and teaching that happens on campus, and our special collections exhibits increase our library's visibility of our collections we present, we present results of original research that happens on campus.
It's also a place for us to recognize significant gifts and acquisitions.
Patti Gibbons: and it's also importantly a way for special collections to build deeper collaborations with other parts of the library and other units on campus.
Patti Gibbons: I find that mission statements at every place are going to be different, and over time your goals and your mission are going to change a bit.
Patti Gibbons: I continually go back to my mission statement for guidance. It's especially helpful when i'm considering suggestions for exhibit ideas, and whether or not they're good fit for my venue, I think it's important also
to align your exhibit
Patti Gibbons: program with your institutional goals. When you're thinking about your program, consider ways, exhibits, fulfill or advance your library's mission and be vocal about it right about it, emphasize about, emphasize it, help people, connect the dots and show the ways, exhibits, advance the whole libraries, strategic goals.
Patti Gibbons: I think it's hard to oversee the benefits of exhibits. But sometimes people need reminders of the specific ways, exhibit programs, support for large umbrella of institutional goals. Maybe your library is looking to engage new audiences or expand connections with a specific group of patrons
Patti Gibbons: and exhibits, really can help with that. Maybe your library is emphasizing. It's core goals to inspire. Lifelong learning exhibits are perfect. They inspire curiosity and spark and interest. To learn.
Patti Gibbons: Another fundamental cornerstone for success of an exhibit program is getting buy in it's critical to have the support of your library administration.
Patti Gibbons: The Administration needs to understand and support your exhibit development because their leadership and ensures financial support staffing, and the space needed to do exhibits at your library.
Patti Gibbons: I also think it's important to mention that exhibits take on the point of view of your institution. So it's key to align your exhibit message within your library's voice, and have the underlying support from your administrators. If your leadership, if your leadership is bashful about, say.
Patti Gibbons: sensitive topics, like censorship or band books, or or something like that. You have to have upfront conversations about the types of exhibit themes that the leadership
supports, or would like you to avoid, kind of have to be on the same page.
Patti Gibbons: Another cornerstone to the success of an exhibit program is having realistic understandings on the resources available for your program. Identify what you can do now about what you need for the future.
It might be space. It could be a larger budget. It could be staffing.
Patti Gibbons: And finally, the last cornerstone I think of of
your pillar, for success is just really giving yourself permission to dream big and imagine and play, and
Patti Gibbons: I think think large, because treatment is contagious, and it can inspire and excite you and others who might be in a position to help your program grow, and I think it's important to say Exhibits should be fun.
Patti Gibbons: If you are at the proverbial square one getting ready to set up a program, or if you are ready to move to the next stage of growth, take time to assess key things. You need look at your space.
Patti Gibbons: and think. Where will you? Where do you
Patti Gibbons: think about displaying your materials? What are the requirements of that space for you are looking to grow or change. What's the ideal location, the size of the space, the functional requirements?
Knowing this, you might be able to position yourself to prompt a renovation or seize opportunities when renovations are being scheduled.
Patti Gibbons: Another thing to consider is staffing. Do you need a dedicated person to develop content another person to design graphics someone to physically handle and register materials or coordinate loans?
Patti Gibbons: Or is 1 one person able to do multiple tasks at your library, thinking about staffing your resources will help you meet your goals.
Patti Gibbons: Another consideration is: physical production needs exhibits our 3 dimensional and visual products. What do you? What do you need to create books or book mounts, you know, to hold books open. And how will you create graphic panels and labels?
Patti Gibbons: Do you need protective cases? There might be things you can do in house. You may be able to take workshops, to learn, exhibit production or graphic design techniques.
and you may up.
Patti Gibbons: It may find ways to outsource, say, printing to vendors, knowing what you need, helps you plan for the long term.
Patti Gibbons: Finally, there are environmental concerns with exhibits, especially exhibits in archives and special collection settings.
You may need to improve or change your lighting your h back.
Patti Gibbons: your bill, or even your building security, enable to put on or grow your exhibit program overall, tick stock where you are today, and what you want to do at present, and what you want to do in the future.
Patti Gibbons: Your exhibit program may start out modestly, but identifying room for growth helps you support your journey towards improvement
Patti Gibbons: for a formal exhibit program working to developed and adapt a range of exhibit policies and procedures will help you manage your program
policies, help you set boundaries. They give you a framework, they help with schedules. They define roles, and importantly, they help you follow professional best practices which improve the quality of your work.
Patti Gibbons: As a matter of controlled growth. You can work to create these policies a little at a time. You can review and revise them as your program expands and you tackle different issues.
This, like
Patti Gibbons: covers some of the the core. Policies and procedures, I think, are that are helpful for people to develop
Patti Gibbons: before you start developing, exhibit content. I think it's helpful to get to know your audience.
Patti Gibbons: Think, think about who your typical visitors are. Do you work with teens, seniors, university students, corporate employees
think about their interest.
Patti Gibbons: I no one is more expert than you to gauge and assess your own library patrons
Patti Gibbons: working and interacting with them, position to you, to have insight into their interest their likes, their dislikes. You, as a librarian, know firsthand the materials that circulate most often.
Patti Gibbons: and you feel their reference questions, and you listen to patron requests these experiences give you a perspective that can help you select, exhibit topics and shape how you present materials to your audience.
Patti Gibbons: Also, Don't feel that you need to reach everyone with every exhibit you can focus, and you'll You'll speak to the larger audience.
Patti Gibbons: Another way to get to know your audience is to form an exhibit advisory group with community members or representatives from a target audience you specifically wish to reach out, to
collaborating, to create exhibits, will forge partnerships foster understanding and vastly deepen the impact of your exhibits.
Patti Gibbons: You might also consider creating an internal exhibit advisory group with colleagues who have expertise that can add to your exhibits.
Patti Gibbons: Perhaps bibliographers can help with content development. It technicians might help
Patti Gibbons: program digital exhibits or create interactive communication. Staff may help with marketing circulation and reference staff may give insight to patron interests and trends
Patti Gibbons: overall. Different people, sharing multiple perspectives and skills can help improve and extend the reach of what you can do with your exhibit program.
Patti Gibbons: There are a 1 million stories at the library, and when planning your exhibit schedule and considering what subjects to develop into topics for exhibits. Librarians can turn to your. You know I I recommend turning to your collection strengths to find topics to explore and turn into exhibits.
I know this sounds businessy, but the Swat analysis technique is kind of really helpful to helping you identify it. Topics that could be potentially be things to develop into exhibits and things to skip
Patti Gibbons: and thinking about the swat. Analysis strengths would be, you know, sitting down with the piece of paper and writing down what makes your library collections unique.
Patti Gibbons: What are your institutional strengths, what topics, subjects, and areas? Do you have the deepest holdings?
You very likely will find success developing exhibits on these topics. It's my advice to lead with your strengths.
Patti Gibbons: Conversely, knowing what your weaknesses are, and knowing where the gaps are in your collections will show you topics to avoid. If your your holdings are incomplete, or you don't, cover certain subject areas. I don't think you're really on solid footing to develop exhibits on those topics it would be challenging.
Patti Gibbons: Part of the Swat Analysis is also to think about opportunities and opportunities in relation to exhibits might be thinking if your libraries recently acquired a new collection that might be interesting for an exhibit.
Patti Gibbons: or, you know, have there been recent scientific discoveries, or something trending it with general social interest that overlaps with your collection.
Patti Gibbons: Think about milestone anniversaries that might be happening. That could be a discussion on the topic such as a prolific author's birthday, or you know important local events.
Patti Gibbons: Also consider whether your collection speaks to the interest of specific clubs, groups, or audiences. You might develop your exhibits around those ideas.
You can have silly fun things like national food holidays. PET related them to exhibits or or just something that's fun. And your ideas, even if they fall short of a full scale, exhibit, they might be great for impromptu displays. So
Patti Gibbons: also the last part of the the Swat analysis as threats. And you know this might be simply a threat would be retelling a story that a peer organization has recently told, or overlooking a topic that you you could have done in an exhibit on.
Patti Gibbons: And when I was thinking recently about threats and kind of
Patti Gibbons: missing opportunities, you remember I remember a situation in I had to look up the date. It was late, like November, 2,008
Patti Gibbons: people at our library in Illinois we're, realizing that was Abraham Lincoln's 2 hundredth birthday in February, but our exhibit schedule is pretty full.
Patti Gibbons: and our colleagues said, Well, maybe we can shoot for next February, and I just remember chuckling thinking about how odd and uninspiring it would be to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 200 and first 200 and first birthday, so I always keep that in mind Sometimes ship sale, and you just have to
Patti Gibbons: realize you've lost the opportunity and move on
Patti Gibbons: part of the exercise. With the Swat Analysis, I think, is so helpful is, it really helps you just flood
Patti Gibbons: yourself with ideas, and you could have a what I call an idea bank where you're just gathering ideas as they come to you that you potentially could earmark as something later to develop an in as an into an exhibit and do research slowly on.
Patti Gibbons: I think, starting an idea. Bank is a great way just to centralize any kind of brainstorming ideas and suggestions that come about. My advice is to explore, Consider everything and just jot ideas down and don't worry if it's a vague concept.
Patti Gibbons: I found that great I great exhibit ideas, have a way of percolating and coming into focus with time, and also by talking with other people. and the ideas without legs just tend to fade away.
Formal brainstorming sessions with other people, can help generate ideas for your idea bank, and you might consider establishing an exhibit team that meets at some intervals to formally brainstorm and and talk and and come up with ideas.
Patti Gibbons: You and your team may find inspiration for exhibit topics by
Patti Gibbons: reviewing acquisition and purchase lists. Looking back at reference questions, analyzing your circulation records, and these things help you identify topics of interest to your visitors.
Patti Gibbons: You might also consider a suggestion box overall. You'll very likely get inspiration and ideas for exhibits outside of your formal planning sessions. So be be sure to recognize your inspired moments and write things down for your for your growing idea bank.
Patti Gibbons: As your exhibit program grows. you will need to develop competencies for key exhibit development facets, including waste, develop and curate intellectual content.
Patti Gibbons: As a cure curator. You're a storyteller, though not the sort of storyteller who weaves tales as an exhibit curator. You AIM to write painfully, concise, accurate, even handed and ethically presented content. That apple you describes the items you selected for display
Patti Gibbons: when developing a topic or an idea into a an exhibit, it's best to seek out a fresh, interesting angle that sets the exhibit a part. Also, remember it's important that your topic be byte size
Patti Gibbons: in general, tackling broad subjects like the Renaissance or atomic energy or the the space race, and a single exhibit is nearly impossible, and your visitors already are coming to you. Knowing the basics about these topics.
Patti Gibbons: your exhibit should tell them something they didn't know or ask them to consider a particular aspect, some subset of a topic, and just explore a lesser known angle that tells a smaller contained story.
Patti Gibbons: For example, the topics of Shakespeare's work is a huge topic. but perhaps Shakespeare's works that introduce new words into the English language might be a fresh, informative exhibit, focus.
Patti Gibbons: overall, look for ways to narrow your topic. A single exhibit should not be tasked with being the definitive source of information on a topic
Patti Gibbons: it's impossible, and an exhibit that tries to do all that really is going to fall into that too long. Didn't read category. People just won't stay interested
Patti Gibbons: also, Remember, exhibits are not simply large displays in libraries and archives. There are opportunities to tell stories through books, papers, and objects exhibits should be driven by an overarching objective to teach
prompt reflection, encourage action or a response.
Patti Gibbons: When you're developing content.
Patti Gibbons: also ask yourself what key messages do you want your visitors to take away from an exhibit? What do you want them to learn, appreciate, or reflect on?
Patti Gibbons: Not too long ago last summer curators at my library put on an exhibit about graphic medicine, and they articulated 3 clear learning messages.
Patti Gibbons: The first is graphic medicine and graphic novels. It's an emerging, and i'm pardon me, an emerging genre in the graphic literature world, and it focuses on health and medicine that educates and documents. The discourse of health care.
Patti Gibbons: The second thing, that of the learning objectives was graphic. Medicine covers themes ranging from
Patti Gibbons: reproductive issues, illness in general and just health topics, and the third
Patti Gibbons: key message was the nature of graphic literature. Helps. Readers and authors express often personal emotional feelings associated with dealing with illness
in that exhibit. I feel like our exhibit curators did a great job
Patti Gibbons: teasing out the 3 key, learning messages that they wanted, and this helped guide them at the start of their idea. The topic was just, hey, let's do an exhibit about graphic, not as our graphic history and graphic novels. And they started researching things
Patti Gibbons: and focusing in and it kind of honed in on medical, graphic novels, and that really switched the whole thinking and planning of that exhibit, and they got narrower and narrower, and by kind of thinking about their 3 key messages. When they started planning the actual exhibit.
they could make sure that they
Patti Gibbons: pick things that helped. you know.
Patti Gibbons: show that this was an emerging field. These were brand new ideas, and then also they took time to cover the range of of material that this genre was including, I think, they did a good I a good job with that.
Patti Gibbons: In addition to curatorial skills. As your exhibit program grows, you will also need to develop physical production competencies. Today we are just giving a cursory look at the core production skills because each of the things I will mention can be a full time career on their own
Patti Gibbons: thinking about design. Skills exhibits are visual, and you'll learn to need to tell stories visually. This concludes how Typeface and font impact visitor experience as well as effective ways to lay out graphics that enhance the overall visual experience.
Patti Gibbons: You'll need to develop 3 dimensional visual abilities to envision Floor Plans case Layouts. How in
Patti Gibbons: how materials are positioned
to present things in a way that aids the flow of of an experience and isn't crowded or awkward. awkwardly placed
Patti Gibbons: to safely display materials. You'll need to learn how to make.
Patti Gibbons: exhibit mounts that support materials on display. You may learn how to do this and do it in house. You might work with contractors, or you may work with vendors to purchase reusable mounts and book cradles.
Main also need to involve conservation staff to evaluate and prepare materials.
Patti Gibbons: Furthermore.
Patti Gibbons: you may need to learn yourself how to produce for a label signs and graphics. You could could outsource this and work with vendors or do it in house.
Patti Gibbons: in archival, in special collection settings. Careful consideration is needed to mitigate the physical impact of temperature, humidity, vibration, air, filtration, light and security.
Patti Gibbons: Your exhibit program and these settings will have to address the environmental needs of your institution
Patti Gibbons: in terms of record. Keeping your exhibit program will need to follow professional registrarial best practices.
Patti Gibbons: This includes learning how to effectively document objects, complete condition reports, and perhaps execute loan forms and contracts for traveling exhibits
Patti Gibbons: the museum. Literature in general is just an ample source of guidance for the you know this sort of thinking in these skills. Don't worry the the information you need is out there in the museum world
to expand the impact of your exhibits.
Patti Gibbons: You can think about gallery interactives and maybe develop a repertoire of Add on that enhance your your exhibits. Interactive can help you get information across in ways printed labels. Cannot
Patti Gibbons: some elements to explore include hands on activities such as low tech activities like coloring, writing, drawing, or any kind of makers event that's tailored to your exhibit theme. This could be a fun way for you to have your visitors interact in. Your space
Patti Gibbons: activities can take place as an ongoing part of the exhibit or a pop up, you know, for a day or 2 a special event within the run of an exhibit
Patti Gibbons: You can also consider using takeaways in your exhibit. This could be a scavenger hunt workbook, a book list or resource guide.
and your supplementary takeaways
Patti Gibbons: can be effective, and there are generally low cost ways to allow visitors to take something home to extend their learning from the exhibit
Patti Gibbons: in your in your exhibit spaces you might consider digital kiosks, and this could be: take the form of an ipad or some tablet, and using a tablet, app to create ways to bring more content into your exhibit.
Patti Gibbons: It could be web pages if it's a book you could scan the entire book and have multiple pages. So you, somebody could read through or flip through a digital book.
It could be audio recordings or videos.
Patti Gibbons: You also may be able to stretch time and space. If you create digital exhibits to put on your website.
Patti Gibbons: this will help you extend the content long after the physical exhibit is down.
and also it'll help you be able to reach and interact with visitors outside of your library
Patti Gibbons: overall. Keep in mind most interactive elements require a significant time commitment to create. So experiment and see what works for your library.
Patti Gibbons: I don't believe that every exhibit needs a hands on component or take away. But in certain instances it really helps, and you can experiment and see what is what's what's used and appreciated at your your library.
Patti Gibbons: Very similarly, to add on to your exhibits, you might consider creating outreach programs. They can extend the reach of your exhibit, and they can be a lot of fun. They might help you leverage community involvement. They could help you drive up traffic, and they could also
Patti Gibbons: be an event that helps you deep dive into a particular aspect of your exhibit that Isn't, you know.
isn't really expounded upon. There are a wide range of spectrum of programs ranging from passive things, such as film screenings, demonstrations, lectures, panel discussions
to highly interactive hands on programs such as a book, club or arts and crafts making activities, or even food, tasting events. If it's related to the subject.
Patti Gibbons: your programs can be one time standalone experiences or serve as as part of a larger series with multiple sessions. Your programs can be indoors outdoors, or even away from the library and out in your community
Patti Gibbons: There's really no limits to programming. You can dream. Try. See what works, and it's a great way to create partnerships and bring library services out into your community.
You've put a lot of time and energy into your exhibits and making them happen so it's really important to get the word out.
Patti Gibbons: There are a variety of marketing strategies to consider target marketing, traditional media tools, such as press kits and newsletters.
creating promotional takeaway materials, such as flyers and pamphlets.
Patti Gibbons: as well as having printed materials that catch people's attention like banners and posters and signs.
Patti Gibbons: Tapping on to I. Online resources is highly effective, and social media has become an integral part of many organizations overall marketing strategies
Patti Gibbons: online marketing to your web pages conclude, can include specific strategies such as adopting a hashtag for your exhibit program or for specific exhibits.
Patti Gibbons: using your library's social media feeds to cross, promote, and enhance the visibility of your exhibit posts.
Patti Gibbons: incorporating videos, images, testimonial stories, and other resources will help your exhibit website become more engaging
Patti Gibbons: also you could consider creating live guides for a first audience on various themes related to your exhibit. To help promote the exhibit
Patti Gibbons: overall. My advice is to experiment, and continually seek out marketing opportunities that make sense to help you target and reach audiences, and also fit within the scheme of your resources, and
Patti Gibbons: are manageable
Patti Gibbons: as your exhibit program grows formally, Valuation and assessment can help you measure your exhibits programs, effectiveness. evaluation helps you identify things that worked shows you what got the best bang for the buck.
Patti Gibbons: and evaluation helps foster transparency and trust. It helps build ties with constituencies. It provides you with data that demonstrates the impact of exhibits.
Patti Gibbons: It helps you pull out anecdotal feedback from visitors that provide you with firsthand stories about your library's impact
Patti Gibbons: as you create more exhibit experiences your accumulated evaluation data allows you to establish standards and benchmarks
Patti Gibbons: overall. There are 3 main types of exhibit evaluation techniques that you can employ to help give you insight into your exhibits. The first is front and evaluation techniques.
Patti Gibbons: These may take the form of surveys, focus groups, comment boxes or online polls. They are going to help you learn more about your users needs before you develop your exhibit
Patti Gibbons: formative evaluation. Techniques are concerned. Things like prototyping or testing particular elements with a focus group and formally soliciting feedback about something that's defined, a defined concern that you have.
Patti Gibbons: and these help you find 2 parts of your exhibit during the run of the show.
Patti Gibbons: and finally, summative evaluation techniques can help you gather data to measure the effectiveness and impact your exhibit has with your audience.
This will help you provide insight for future exhibit planning.
Patti Gibbons: This could be reviewing comment cards or entries in a guest book. It could be counting attendance figures. It could be measuring the not more of supplies to use during the events or the takeaways distributed.
Patti Gibbons: You might also track. exhibit related reference questions. You might study your online at analytics. You can just look and track your visitor.
Patti Gibbons: your visitor attendance.
Patti Gibbons: I'm: almost at the end of what I have ready for you today, and the presentation, and I wanted to point out 3 3 3 3 resources, I thought, are really great for librarians. The manual of Museum exhibits by Barry and Gail Dexter. Lord.
Patti Gibbons: it's all the nuts and bolts of for museum professionals, and how to display exhibits. They'll give you advice on Ada requirements on case requirements, environmental settings.
the height to hang paintings and and and things like that so kind of a lot of the nuts and bolts. But best practices from the Museum world. Beverly Surreal's exhibit labels is is the Premier. Go to one and only source you ever need to know, to help you write better labels.
Patti Gibbons: and also, lastly, exhibits and display the book that Carol Nih and I wrote is really something we worked on for librarians in particular. We wanted to make it a manageable guide for librarians working in public or academic settings or corporate settings, any setting. Really and I feel like those are ways 3 resources that are
Patti Gibbons: really great to help you jump, start your exhibit program, and it is endless. In the Museum literature world of other resources you might might encounter, and being librarians. I feel like you. You'll have these resources at your fingertips.
Patti Gibbons: and I don't need to
put together a full resource list for you.
Patti Gibbons: and and I think that is
Patti Gibbons: what I have prepared for you today. and I wanted to thank so much to Julie and the Niche Academy for setting this up.
Julie Edwards: Thank you so much, Patty. This is awesome. We have had some questions. Come in. Please do drop your questions for Paddy in the question and answer box, and I will be sure to
Julie Edwards: see if we can get those to her. So let's just start right in Paddy several people. There was a little conversation going on in the chat where you're talking about a swat analysis, so you covered it a little bit. But could you give us sort of like a a brief overview of how what it is and how you use it.
Patti Gibbons: Yeah, I it's literally. I take out a piece of paper and make the the cross and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And I just spend time. I find it also helpful to work with colleagues and say, what makes us. You know what's our strength? What what are we known for? What are our collection depths? And and it'll be like naming off history of medicine, the classics, or British literature and what you know thinking about.
What are we buying now? Where are we really focusing our energies on? And for that I might also ask our instructional team. You know what classes are coming in for me. Special collections, W. What classes are coming in, what topics
Patti Gibbons: and kind of getting a gauge, on what faculty at the University are are studying and and just growing topic List where you you know just sort of thinking.
not in terms of how this would look as an exhibit. But just what your strengths are that later on you can kind of tease out examples
Patti Gibbons: and weaknesses. I don't think you need to spend much time on. Just
Patti Gibbons: you know, things like maybe we're not really the best place here for music, programming, or themes on music. That's not really our best holdings or non Western languages for us, and then opportunities is another really super fun thing.
Patti Gibbons: I think you can grow a list of, You know just the anniversaries that you could celebrate through in an exhibit like you know
Patti Gibbons: how it it it could be unless you could do. Or this is really helpful, I think, also for displays. You could do this springtime.
Patti Gibbons: You could think of things seasonally. You could think of national holidays.
Patti Gibbons: current events, and come up with topics, and just look ahead. I think the example, or where I was talking about missing Lincoln's birthday, You know you can kind of map out maybe important writers, or or things that are of general interest to our library. Base
Patti Gibbons: and kind of Keep your eyes out for upcoming anniversaries and things like that, and the threats are
Patti Gibbons: in a way that you miss things, or also it's kind of a way to be aware of what other nearby institutions are doing, because you don't want to cover the same ground as what other organizations are doing.
Julie Edwards: Thank you so much that's super helpful, and I encourage you, Paddy, after to look at the chat because you're getting so many kudos, lots of people there. So somebody just said, our creativity got a jolt here which is not
Julie Edwards: any tips, for this one is, has come up, and I'm going to combine these questions because I think they're similar. Any tips for very small institutions or libraries, or any recommendations for having exhibits in a space. That's not a dedicated gallery like a meeting room that's still going to be like actively used for meetings.
Patti Gibbons: Yeah, I feel like this is where displays really come into play where you could start small, and maybe you have an area that people start to know like. Oh, let's see what they have going this month, or you know this quarter, or semester, or whatever, and having a little go to space.
Patti Gibbons: I think that's a great way for you to start
Patti Gibbons: putting your toe in the water and building interest. And if you're ever worried about security or environmental controls, you know, digital surrogates are great and reproducing things can really help
Patti Gibbons: avoid any kind of environmental or security risks. If you have things that are out in the open. Also it's a good way it for making reproductions where you can blow things up, and we find that in our archive it's difficult to display a whole letter.
Patti Gibbons: so it's visible for people to read or newspaper clippings, and then, taking the opportunity to blow something up for a large size, increases the visual interest it has for people. It makes it easier to read, and we can put these things in places that aren't behind glass.
Patti Gibbons: So in some ways I found that's a check that we use to work around work around places. You know her things
Patti Gibbons: also with smaller institutions. I think you could think about digital exhibits or your social media feed being part of your exhibit program, and you could do a spotlight on a book or a spotlight on something you want to talk about and generate conversations and learning opportunities virtually
Julie Edwards: awesome. Thank you. Since you brought up digital exhibits. Could you talk a little bit more about what? What consists of a digital exhibit on the website? A slideshow pictures a lib guide. What kind of things
we there is. Oh, it's escaping me right now, and i'll probably blurt it out in a minute of i'm like there's one top platform, Omega, that is very user friendly, and it's template. I feel like the subscription rates are very, very modest, and it'll set it up for you. So there's a home page with a splashy on front Graphic, and then have template boxes for you to have pictures
Patti Gibbons: and
Patti Gibbons: text boxes that you can use to discuss any topic you can import
Patti Gibbons: and click on audio files, and you know, add. add audio to your web exhibit. so I feel like those are out there, and easy for people to use.
Julie Edwards: Thank you.
Julie Edwards: Someone's asking what's a good size for display. How many books at a time should be out before it becomes all overwhelming? How many other materials and a corollary question is, how often and how often should you display them? And and should they change, especially if you have a smaller staff or people who aren't dedicated curators?
Patti Gibbons: Absolutely. That's a real world concern, and I think it's great to balance that at my situation in my library we base. We have one exhibit per quarter, because we're on the quarter system, and that's what we can manage with our our display. Our Our exhibits
Patti Gibbons: We have pop-up displays. So we have a case that will just populate with things, but we also have the ability to take that case away so it can be empty, and people won't even know that it's missing. I think if you have a good high traffic area and you want to do a display.
Patti Gibbons: you have a display area.
Patti Gibbons: you know. Maybe maybe 5 things at most might be all you need. If you're maybe hosting.
Patti Gibbons: say a school group helping select items like your.
Patti Gibbons: But tell me your favorite book, and you have a for you highlighting a first grade room. So you might have 25 students each selecting stuff I think situations like that are great to have too many things because it involves a group of people. But
Patti Gibbons: yeah, I I feel like with the display. You know 5 is is plenty, and also they're going to be in your high traffic area. So you don't want to clog up things. You want people to kind of see what? See some highlights and move and move through.
Yeah. And I think a good way to gauge also is when you think about
Patti Gibbons: maybe, how you present things in social media. If you. If you have somebody that has 25 photos of their of their vacation, you aren't likely to click through them all but if somebody picks 3 great photos. You're gonna click and see them all and get the gist of things. So
Patti Gibbons: less is more often in exhibits. It really is not only because it's it's realistic and easier to put out, but also on the visitors, and being overwhelmed, is just a great way to get people to get bored and move on, or or things so never feel bad about having
Patti Gibbons: half the amount that you felt initially should be there.
Julie Edwards: That's great advice, thank you.
Julie Edwards: This is a good question. Does your book have information about legal issues and waivers that may be needed to display materials from outside the library? And i'm going to add a corollary to this question that I haven't seen come up, but that has come up for me, and personal experience having done, exhibits at my library
Julie Edwards: what are your recommendations for reconsideration or challenge forms for exhibits
Patti Gibbons: deeply into the legal aspect. There's probably in the Museum field that the Marie Malaro She is a lawyer that works with the Smithsonian and her books. The legal primers for museum exhibits, or something like that is is the go to source that I first look at whenever I have any
issues about legal contracts related to exhibits or rights and reproductions.
Patti Gibbons: What in in my personal experience in this library a lot of image rights come up, and especially
Patti Gibbons: in the digital exhibit. So a lot of times when we create a digital web, exhibit it won't. Look like what we have had exactly in the gallery, because there.
Patti Gibbons: like their copyright issues or or things that prevent us from being able to display every images, sound or video on our web exhibits
Patti Gibbons: so
Julie Edwards: awesome. Thank you. And for the person asking this question. I don't know if it's helpful. But we used to have to connect with our university, legal council or insurance. You know they often. The parent organization was often the one that dealt with like the legal side of things for us because we were nested underneath them.
Patti Gibbons: Absolutely. Yeah, I think the Marie Malaro books are a great start. If you're not in a parent organization.
Julie Edwards: Awesome. Thank you.
Julie Edwards: So someone is asking. I work in a public library with a limited budget. Do you have any recommendations for grants or alternative funding?
Patti Gibbons: Oh, that's a great one.
Patti Gibbons: I I would have to think about that. A. Of of of of Yeah.
I wonder if
Patti Gibbons: if if Ala, the American Library Association, has any specific exhibit related funding.
Julie Edwards: I used to use their public programs office a lot. They, a lot of their traveling exhibits, are free, like you pay for the shipping between libraries, and they do a pretty good job of scheduling things, so that you not necessarily shipping way across the country, so they were always super helpful.
Julie Edwards: Let's see. Someone is asking. Oh, I lost the question.
Julie Edwards: Let me go back and check it. In the meantime someone else is asking. I was wondering if curators are generally able or willing to assist with the content to be exhibited.
Patti Gibbons: We rely, you know I I should say it's really a fortunate it. Instance, if you work in a library and you have a curator that's fantastic. But most most libraries, Don't and the curatorial voice for exhibit comes from staff, and
Patti Gibbons: I feel like in our library. We try to involve all different library staff to become curators for a single show, and we've had a lot of success also working in the University, reaching out
Patti Gibbons: sometimes to professors and even doctors at the hospital that get interested in one of our collection strengths is medical history. We've made partnerships that way.
Patti Gibbons: and we've also tried experimented with having students as curators. It's a it's a lot of work. It's a lot of instructional work, and so I can't say that's an easy route to go.
Patti Gibbons: Thank you. And Patty. Someone was asking if you could just go back to the slide with those 3 books on them.
Patti Gibbons: There you go.
Julie Edwards: and I'm seeing great stuff come up in the chat in terms i'm trying to keep up with the chat in terms of you know, partnering and reaching out someone mentioned there, or where to find exhibits and low cost exhibits someone mentioned working with local archives or museums. Someone else mentioned their State Humanities Council. So there's lots of
Julie Edwards: yeah. So the question that I had been looking for that was popping around the chat, and then came into the question and answer box. Can you speak to the case for hosting art exhibits in a public library without staff or financial resources. What's the library mission being served here? And the reason for asking the question is, especially
Julie Edwards: if you're trying to convince Board members or administrators that you should do exhibits.
Patti Gibbons: The first thing that comes to mind for me is art. Exhibits are an excellent vehicle for visual literacy, and it is a library we focus so heavily on just
Patti Gibbons: literal words, and that type of of straightforward literacy, having visual having an opportunity to teach people how to think visually how to see what an artist sees as it's a fantastic thing. That's
Patti Gibbons: it kind of brings a whole new dimension to your educational super outreach or structure. And and also I feel like
Patti Gibbons: It's a different type of experience that's uplifting and and can bring a different thoughtfulness to an experience at a library, and especially when you're coming to the library you don't expect any kind of display. It's not like an art museum that you you seek out, and so
Patti Gibbons: it's a you work in a world of opportunity where you could. I don't know, surprise people with something that really enriches their experience that trip to the library, and it might draw in other people that usually don't come to your library or have forgotten about the public library, but they'll hear that there's
an artist that somebody told him about, or word of mouth. So I I feel like the benefits. Aren't.
Patti Gibbons: You know it's not that it's gonna help you circulate more books or or things like that, but I think, as far as an audience experience, it's a great add on. and also Educationally, it gives you an opportunity to
talk about visual literacy
Julie Edwards: fantastic. I would often use them to highlight aspects of of our collection, right so, especially if we got a traveling exhibit. Then we would pull what we had internally. That would would augment that. So it helps with those.
Julie Edwards: Let's see.
Yes.
Julie Edwards: i'm i'm trying to look through the chat. If any of you have any final questions for Paddy, please put them in the Q. A. The chat is just moving too fast for you. Somebody, I think, was asking earlier about whether or not it's worth putting together. Exhibit catalogs. If you're a public library
Patti Gibbons: we've moved away from it. It's just prohibitively expensive and it used to be the cornerstone of what scholars wanted at an academic library.
and what I've found has replaced it is, we do Web exhibits where we're able to allow people to expound a little bit more, have more text than we want them to have in a gallery visit.
Patti Gibbons: and we our it Department, has developed something similar to Omega as far as a template. And so it's very easy for Staff just to click on a text box and
kind of like wordpress or something, add an image and add some text, and it really doesn't cost anything. But I feel like
Patti Gibbons: on occasion. Our last. Our last exhibit catalogue was a couple of years back. In any time
Patti Gibbons: we get a suggestion to have one. We require that faculty, or the person presenting the idea, which is usually a faculty member, have funding for it, because the printing and and all the costs for production are very high
Patti Gibbons: we've experimented occasionally with self-published books and the quality is, you know it's it's not. They're not coffee table books. But there! When we had
Patti Gibbons: a curator that wanted to take on that project, so it's something we've moved away from, because it's
too expensive meaning like $40,000 for for a book or something so
Julie Edwards: fantastic. Thank you. I see that some people are asking how to get the recording of the Webinar. I will send that in a few days. It'll take me a little bit to get everything prepared, but I will be sending out the Chat Transcript, the
Julie Edwards: audio transcript of the recording and paddy's slides, so that you will all have access to all of this within the next few days.
Julie Edwards: So, Paddy, there are a lot of Thank you. Thank you for coming in for you. People seem to really appreciate this lots of hugely great great information flying back and forth in the chat. So yes, I will definitely
Julie Edwards: send this out, Patty. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your expertise with us this afternoon. It's been so. Thank you so much, Julie. Thank you for having having me on.
Julie Edwards: Thank you all for attending. I'm so happy to see so many of you here. Oh, thank you, Someone saying so, motivating and enlightening. Thank you so much, everybody. I hope that we'll see you all@thewebinarcomingupnextweekandfuturewebinarsyoucangotonicheacademy.com slash blog to check those out and register for them.
Julie Edwards: In the meantime, stay well, Happy National Library Week, and we'll see you in the next one. Have a great day, everybody.
Patti Gibbons: Hi!