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Like it or not, the typical “outreach session” for any GLAM institution is a single, one-shot, sixty minute workshop. I’ll set aside our desires to be better integrated into the semester curriculum, or museum summer series, or after school high school programs, and have more time. Instead, I’d like to focus on how to make the one-shot as meaningful as possible. (I’m taking on faith that we can can make it meaningful.)

I’d like to in particular talk about creating meaningful one-shot sessions focused on digital cultural heritage objects. In academic libraries, this might be a research session on primary sources. In state archives, an outreach session on genealogy databases. In museums, a digital art workshop for high schoolers.

However, the content is less important to me than the format — how do GLAMs create a short but powerful learning experience that will encourage participants to come back and see us again? How can online tools extend connections with our patrons, and create new spaces for public arts and humanities? I have a few thoughts:

• Give participants a task before the session. (Something as simple as saying “Before attending this museum session, pick your favorite painting to re-mix.”)
• Minimize lecture, maximize hands-on creation. (E.g., “Use digital art tools to create a new painting based on your favorite.”)
• What participants create, they take home as a reminder. (E.g. a nice printout of their artwork, plus a permanent online home for their artwork.)
• Give participants a platform for discussion after the session. (E.g. online commenting and easy Twitter/Facebook/other sharing of their artwork.)

However, I have a feeling that public institutions, archives, and museums are far out ahead of me and my fellow academic librarians! So I’d love to hear about what you’re doing and develop a set of recommendations to bring back for my own teaching and outreach efforts.

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Many libraries and archives exhibit material on their websites or on blogs and social media platforms. They range from full-on interactive experiences to duplications of existing physical exhibits to “object of the month” style photo blogs. While there are decades of theory behind physical exhibit design, for the most part, institutions are on their own in deciding how they should present their materials online, how much they should present, and what content and functionality their users actually want. In this session we would discuss our experiences with creating online exhibit material, the methods and tools used in creating such exhibits, and perhaps ask some larger questions: What do users want/need out of online exhibits? Should institutions try to duplicate the physical exhibit experience as much as possible? Is there something more that can be done with online exhibits than what we are already doing?

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Sure, the fun part is actually doing the project – digging into the data, creating cool models and maps, driving the discussion and exploration of a chosen topic. But what happens after the project concludes? How are the products created during the project managed? What about the documentation and systems used? The responsibility for a digital project humanities project does not end when the final product is created and shared. Libraries are uniquely placed to provide support not only during a project, but afterward as well. I’d like this session to explore ways that libraries can create and market the services needed to support digital humanities projects when they’ve reached their end. At what point should libraries become involved in the project? Should DH projects consider the limitations of library information systems when being planned, or should libraries be flexible to handle a wide range of data and products?