Jen Kirk, Utah State University: All right, it is 145. Welcome to the next session of today's conference. This traveling exhibit is a disaster.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: My name is Jen Kirk, I will be hosting this panel as well as contributing to a portion of it, our lead speaker today is Suzanne, Carl.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: She is the government information librarian at North Dakota State University, she's also the author of digitizing your collection Public Library success stories and editor of essentials of government information which one the
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Margaret T ln and Virginia F Saunders Memorial Research Award. She has developed exhibits, including Artemis to Apollo 17 death dying and afterlife and duck and cover civil defense in North Dakota.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Venture pasa is an assistant professor and government information librarian at the University of Montana. He also functions as the regional depository coordinator for the state of Montana.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Ben recently presented a GM docs one one webinar about creating displays and exhibits. You can access this presentation through the federal depository library programs training repository.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And finally, again, my name is Jen Kirk. I am the government information librarian at Utah State University Libraries where I'm the regional coordinator
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: For Federal depository libraries in Utah and Nevada as part of our government information program I regularly coordinate displays.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: As outreach to patrons, both from the University and the general public. I'll be monitoring chat for questions throughout. So please feel free to chime in. We look forward to a collaborative discussion, without further ado, Suzanne, take it away.
susanne: Thanks, Jen. So one thing I want to mention too is that
susanne: We have a longer presentation that we put together that is available for you to watch whenever you'd like. So we really wanted this portion of
susanne: The presentation to be more of a discussion and to hear feedback from people are also going to be putting a link to a survey in the chat so
susanne: This traveling exhibit as a disaster.
susanne: Hopefully not literally or maybe a little too literally.
susanne: So what do you think of when you think of a traveling exhibit, you probably think of something that comes out of a box maybe something, you get a grant for everything's pre packaged
susanne: You get a whole bunch of crates you unpack them maybe successfully maybe and successfully and you have a certain amount of space that is going to take up
susanne: That can be great, it can bring you all content that you wouldn't otherwise have on a subject that might be a little different, or really topical.
susanne: And it might be something that you don't really have time to do on your own or the resources to put together so they can be great that way.
susanne: However, one of the problems that we can face with this too is that it might not always be a really good fit for your institution.
susanne: You might not be able to get one because you don't have the physical space to actually put it in. Or you might not be able to have a lot of programming which might be required.
susanne: That would connect well with your organization. So we want to try to reimagine this whole idea of a traveling exists and have it as something that
susanne: Individual institutions can actually have more input with
susanne: What we're looking at is creating something where we provide a certain amount of the content, but then we work with the host Institute to create
susanne: Their own embedded materials that would be part of that physical exhibit and not just sort of tagged on and really working well with that subject, and our subject that we came up with was
susanne: Disasters because unfortunately we probably all in our communities have experienced a disaster in some form or another. We also want this exhibit to be mapped and I've been. We'll talk more about that, but to have this as a virtual event or exhibit as well.
susanne: And I'm pretty sure I had more slides than that but
susanne: Go ahead. Chen
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Um, so the idea would be that we are looking to collaborate
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Both the three of us together and creating the the the
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Essential portion of the exhibit, but then also collaborating with people who want to share their stories and tell a larger narrative about disasters and how they impact.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: various locations across the United States. So the collaboration would be not just
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: You know, you have to look through your own things and pull out what you want, but actually communicating with the three of us.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: To provide a graphic design experience that your content is integrated into and also have elements of the display that may be customized once it arrives at your location.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: The idea of this will obviously create a changing story as the exhibit moves from place to place and we hope to document that digitally. And that's where Ben is going to explain just a little bit about that part.
Ben Chiewphasa: Yeah, so we've talked a little bit about kind of the physical physical portion of the exhibit, but I think this project also ties in that virtual presence as well that would accompany this exhibit
Ben Chiewphasa: This virtual present presence would be embedded within a website that includes kind of that pre created content as well as way to integrate local content as well. Um,
Ben Chiewphasa: So by by soliciting that local contact from participating libraries and
Ben Chiewphasa: We were thinking about different ways to kind of how to facilitate that. And one of the ways we were thinking to facilitate a more geospatial component is to use tools like sort of a map JS.
Ben Chiewphasa: A tool that was developed by a night lab over at Northwestern University, and it is open source. But it focuses on allowing us to tell those know
Ben Chiewphasa: Narrative center so tied to geography so tied to locations by using a tool such as story match as we've been able to indicate. Well, first off, where the library where the exhibit has gone
Ben Chiewphasa: I'm kind of visualizing the pathway and travel way of the exhibit itself and also provide that
Ben Chiewphasa: context to that local and community information and that could be in the form of high quality photos images and photos of how maybe the the exhibit has been customized to fulfill the needs and represent the community at large.
Ben Chiewphasa: So we envision, you know, possibly doing that story map JS integration with a website and then
Ben Chiewphasa: They would then allow our users to engage with the exhibit in an accompanying matter that is both innovative and user friendly and something that is supplemental to that physical exhibit
Ben Chiewphasa: Also, we were envisioning the website as being a good act as a resource as well for hosts libraries, where there'd be some kind of guide that provides examples of how to go about planning how to go about assessing
Ben Chiewphasa: The exhibit and how to go about formulating really strategic partnerships and those that could, you know, help assist with
curating and presenting local content or maybe even supplemental programming that could enhance the overall experience.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Alright, so that's our, our brief summary and now we really would like to hear from
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: You all we have some prompted questions here on the slide.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Perhaps you would be willing to share whether you've pursued receiving traveling exhibits in the past, or if you haven't, what's kept you from doing so.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: If you were to take part in a collaborative approach, the way we're describing
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: What would you, how, how would you deal with any hurdles, or what hurdles. Do you envision if you're asked to contribute.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: We'd also just love to hear what your community thinks of traveling exhibits. If you've hosted them in the past or why you as a library and are interested in traveling exhibits.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: So feel free to chime in if you've looked at the survey. You will note that these are the same questions from the survey so
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: So we do have a chat comment.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: That says I love this idea. Well, thank you. I had to travel the exhibit before and ended up making an extra panel with local info on it. Yes, Connie. That's exactly where we got this idea. We know people have done that before and what parts of that.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Were particularly interesting to you, if you don't mind sharing or what was your
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Feel when you created it right by look wasn't very great is what Tony has said, and so part of that collaborative approach that we're looking at for this exhibit is to actually have the fourth panel.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Or fifth panel, depending on the size be be already designed and had basically have markers, where there's a word count where people will know roughly how much they can include and there'll be places for images already
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: We have access to a wonderful graphic designer who will integrate those materials and basically provide either a digital format or a funding is allows actually send you the physical piece with the rest of them.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: We now have another comment in the past from Tanya in the past my institution hosted it with talks and other libraries. It was great because there were multiple pieces to it. Great. Well, thank you for sharing that with Tanya.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Connie has one coming right now from the National Archives and I don't know that we can use it during the SI P. Sorry, I don't know what si P means but ice soon it's related to the pandemic. Yes. Shelter in place. Thank you.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: I'm thinking if seeing if a store could use it right so many of us are have put physical outreach on the backburner at the moment, and it is kind of a bummer.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: We in the previous session. People were talking about census outreach.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: But all of our census planning got put on the wayside, because no one's physically in the building.
Ben Chiewphasa: Like Tanya. I was, if you don't mind sharing. I'm wondering
Ben Chiewphasa: You mentioned that you were in talks with other libraries and how, how did you get
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: garner the interest
Ben Chiewphasa: And support of other libraries to make it a collaborative effort.
Ben Chiewphasa: Alright guys, how, how was it incentivized to, I guess,
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Tanya. If you want to unmute yourself if you're willing to speak, feel free to do that sometimes it's easier than chatting.
Ben Chiewphasa: Okay, so it's me lasagna. Thanks.
Latanya N. Jenkins: Other institutions were incentivized because it was a traveling exhibit and because it was related to the community. I lived in Indiana for a couple of years and
Latanya N. Jenkins: In the Midwest, they are about
Latanya N. Jenkins: Lewis and Clark and so the exhibits had components, whereby public libraries could
Latanya N. Jenkins: Be fine different components that they can use for them. And then the academic libraries used panelists and experts and professors to speak about the topic from their point of view. And then with the public libraries. They had like people in
Latanya N. Jenkins: In. I don't know what it's called like garb, or they were dressed up as participants of that during that time.
Ben Chiewphasa: And they matters. Yeah.
Latanya N. Jenkins: Yes yes reactors and they had guns and other things that they brought to excite the the crowd. So
Latanya N. Jenkins: So just working with the those different libraries, back and forth, that was compelling for me because
Latanya N. Jenkins: It wasn't
Latanya N. Jenkins: Only just the educational components, there were there were multiple senses. You know, like feeling touch and all those other kind of things that are ways that I learned better than reading text alone.
Ben Chiewphasa: Thank thanks so much for sharing. I love how
Ben Chiewphasa: Not only was it a collaborative effort between academic libraries and public libraries, but it
Ben Chiewphasa: Seemed like you all leveraged on what that type of library excels at and and can facilitate like with the academic like recounted the faculty members and then
Ben Chiewphasa: So I love that, you know, really thinking outside the box and kind of not having to stay in your own, you know, bubble right when it thinks about like
Ben Chiewphasa: Only academic libraries can only collaborate with academic libraries. So I think that's so great. And it sounded really fun. So thanks for sharing.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Alright, we have another question in the chat from Jennifer
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: What about advertising the exhibits to the community would those materials be included also will virtual exhibits be emphasized more as we move forward.
susanne: Well, I'll throw in also that
susanne: One of the reasons why we're doing this too is that we're also trying to get a grant. And if we are able to get that grant, there would be an amount of funding available for people to do printing a flyers.
susanne: Also, sort of, basically a personalized level media kit with things like you know your Facebook post or you know your website content. So that would possibly come with this as part of the whole package.
susanne: What was the rest of that question.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Sure. Let's wrap up the advertising note, real quick. I mean, ideally, we would get funding for this. But even if it is an out of the box lesser version.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: There would be graphic design that goes with the exhibit to help promote, even if it's just available digitally. And then the second question was will virtual exhibits be emphasized more moving forward, you know, post pandemic. Do you think
susanne: I think they will. And I also think that they have a considerable value, especially for something like this, where
susanne: We're really having a stronger ability to share our experiences and our stories with each other and to also create an experience that people can go back to
susanne: As it continues to build. So I think this is also a bit of a history of the exhibit as well. And I expect, we're probably going to see a lot more it regards to virtual exhibits.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Great.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Thank you.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: So the next is a kind of a combo comment and question from Arlene, I think help with the design of digital exhibits would be a good thing to focus on right now.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Also, are there ways that libraries can collaborate with state and local agencies to help build the local information piece, Ben. Would you like to speak to the collaboration with agencies part
Ben Chiewphasa: Yeah, I think it's an absolutely viable option. And I think it's going to also depend on leveraging on existing relationships that you've already formed or seeking new partnerships around your
Ben Chiewphasa: Local community. Um, I think about
Ben Chiewphasa: I think a great way to go about doing that is if you're wanting kind of ideas on how to approach agencies are one I like get a strong foot in in building those relationships. Sometimes
Ben Chiewphasa: It might not be that might not translate to a direct line of communication. For example, I reflect back on.
Ben Chiewphasa: When I've collaborated with
Ben Chiewphasa: A fire lab in Missoula.
Ben Chiewphasa: Area of where I'm at, in Missoula, Montana where that relationship resulted from me talking with a faculty member of my university who gave good word of what I was kind of
Ben Chiewphasa: Envisioning for an exhibit so it sometimes these relationships don't necessarily have to be formed. I'm directly just being open to that I think can be really fruitful.
Ben Chiewphasa: Um, so yeah, I think there are definitely ways to collaborate with a state and local agencies to build that local information piece for sure, especially when we think about
Ben Chiewphasa: In the context of this particular exhibit right I'm thinking about how these agencies reacted or were proactive to a man made or natural disasters that affected a community and how that agency built into the narrative of resilience and reemergence I feel like is a very valuable component
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: So Connie shares that she's the local history librarian at her library.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: That's awesome. Connie. And so having the expertise that we could offer would be great.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And the info, we would share would combine really nicely with her local info Connie, you really feel in the presentation. I love that. And we would. The idea is helping with graphics
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And making sure the exhibit feels cohesive, I know that a lot of us love to add to that that traveling exhibit component and make it feel like a story that's representative of our communities, but making it feel like a whole story is what we are striving to do
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And Barker says they received the National Archives free pop up exhibit commemorating the Bill of Rights.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: They shared it with another branch, as well as a local nonprofit community organization for displays. That's awesome. It's great to see.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Multiple locations. Get, get that information. So, Connie asks, might there be a way to take info from the physical exhibit and build it into a virtual one to keep that info available.
susanne: So yes, Connie. Definitely that's actually part of the plan of what we're envisioning is that if we are getting the graphics and the text from the various institutions.
susanne: That those are then incorporated into the virtual exhibit. Plus, if you have physical items that you could also send us images of those could likewise be incorporated into that general collection. One other thing.
susanne: I wanted to add to is that
susanne: There are also so many organizations that have a similar goal of outreach and letting people know
susanne: And museums, archives, all sorts of organizations out there historical societies. They have all this content, but they can't share it as much as maybe they would like when I was in Montana. One thing I was able to do was borrow one of the Apollo 17 moon rocks.
susanne: That they had just integrate in their storage and you know they don't. It's a great object, but they don't always get a chance to show it off so
susanne: One, we had to get a ridiculous amount of insurance on that item, but if you one of your local societies or the state library or someone who works with the city or the mayor's office they might have something that can be incorporated in there, it would be more than happy to help you.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: So in the chat. We're seeing a lot of support for a virtual toolkit.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And especially a media package.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And he shares that they got a standing exhibit for free on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment and intended to use it around Constitution Day. They always tie in to voting.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: But that's not going to happen anytime in our fall term guess we'll have to save it. Yeah. Andy clarifying question for you. I guess was that the
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: rightfully hers display we we put it out first. For the last Constitution Day, but ours is sadly sitting in a dark library right now.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Lisa shares
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Lisa shares a video exhibit they made
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: That featured local, state, and federal government documents Suzanne. Is that what you've pulled up here.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Awesome so
susanne: Yes, it is a link in there.
susanne: Without me going, I need to
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Thank you for sharing with everyone and thank you, Lisa. For one, creating the exhibit into sharing it with us all. Are you thinking of using 3D printed examples of historic objects.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Suzanne.
susanne: Well, I don't see why not. If you know you have the technology and you have the ability to get those 3D items, certainly I have definitely gone to the Smithsonian site to get some of their 3D files and print those out.
susanne: And if you can
susanne: 3D scan share the files.
susanne: I'm all about sharing
Ben Chiewphasa: Right. And I reflect back on. Um, you know, I think that three dimensional object or artifact.
Ben Chiewphasa: Component and exhibit
Ben Chiewphasa: At libraries draws in people more typically that's what I've noticed
Ben Chiewphasa: When I think back of government documents exhibits that I put together the ones that get the most attention or ones with the accompanying things that really enhance the aesthetic and I guess general peels. So yeah, go for it. If you, if you can
Ben Chiewphasa: And
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: So one thing we haven't talked about yet is size.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: How big is too big or how small is too small to make it worthwhile if anyone's willing to share in the chat and and Suzanne. I saw you were about to speak. Sorry.
susanne: Oh, it's fine. I was just going to say that, but my library gotten the Lincoln exhibit. We didn't have a whole heck of a lot for Lincoln in the Civil War, but we were able to 3D print. A life size.
susanne: Printing of Lincoln's head and that thing generated so much interest that we actually shared it with another department and they just had it.
susanne: In a case in their lobby, because everyone thought it was so interesting. So if you can incorporate that kind of content it like Ben says it brings in a lot of attention.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Thank you, Mr. Barker.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: And thank you all for being willing to share your thoughts and the great work you're doing.
Ben Chiewphasa: I guess I'm curious to you're mentioning
Ben Chiewphasa: Possible January, bringing up size constraint. So I'm wondering if others had other concerns. I guess maybe about logistic concerns or concerns whether you know to get buy in to be involved in this concerns about acquiring that local content.
Ben Chiewphasa: Because there is like admittedly to when we think about this project. It's
Ben Chiewphasa: It there does require more I guess time and cognitive energy investment compared to the traditional traveling exhibit right where you kind of just receive one put it together.
Ben Chiewphasa: You know, do the maybe if it's like an al a sponsor thing you have to, you know, commit to a programming or commit to two events, etc. Do you have any I guess, knowing all that. Are there any concerns that you want to raise
Ben Chiewphasa: Or people just totally down for
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Any shares that there's what have to be small, like the panels. You show at the beginning of the slideshow. We're smallish Public Library flexibility and how it sits on the floor together apart.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: You know, whether it's all in one chunk or spread throughout a space makes it more useful to them.
Good point. Thank you for sharing. Yeah.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: I am going to put a link into the survey, again, we are actively looking for feedback. And if you'd like to follow up. There's a will clearly you know how to contact us. We'll share our contact
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: In a moment, but
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: You can also add your email at the end and we can keep you informed as things progress. I will say we are looking for this to finalize hopefully in a post coven world.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Or in a, a world that knows how to understand where we can gather again in a coven world. So we're not looking at doing this in the next six months, is what I'm saying.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Lisa shares the free exhibits from the Smithsonian have digital files of the posters. This makes creating a live guide version easier. Great tip Lisa Thank you.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Arlene says the biggest concern right now is that we don't know when it makes sense to have in libraries if it's again a lot of public libraries are looking for virtual options.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Same Arlene, thank you for for summarizing that so nicely.
susanne: But it's a really good point too, because one of the things we're envisioning is, you know, we're going to have these large files that would be downloaded and used to print say panel, but we could definitely do smaller ones that would be more easily incorporated into library guide.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Jennifer has a comment like Suzanne was saying logistics would be a large concern, such as insurance issues for borrowing materials or potential copyright issues regarding local stories.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Arlene shares smaller public libraries often don't have the same platforms like lip guides to do this kind of work that's something to keep in mind as we're discussing a digital presence.
So very good point.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: All right, we have two
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: minutes left. Any final comments or questions for the group.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: We Suzanne. I'll turn it back to you to kind of wrap it up for us if you want
susanne: Well, please. If you are interested in this at all and would like to participate in the grant that we're trying to get to basically figure out exactly how all of this is going to work and to run it more as a planning or a
susanne: My words are not working today as a test.
susanne: To see if you you would be interested, please let us know because we'd love to get at least another partner in to participate in this project.
susanne: And I'll also throw out real quickly that we're trying to keep the panels fairly small and in separate pieces so that depending on the size of your space you can move them around quite a bit. So if you don't have a large space, it would still work.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Alright, I've placed
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Emails for the three presenters and putting myself into the chat.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Thank you all for your feedback and your interaction. I know this was slightly different than what we've been doing, but
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Jennifer ends with also go bison Suzanne her parents are MDS you alumni.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Wonderful. Alright, well it is to 15 on the.we have another break and then we'll be back at. See, I didn't keep the schedule open. I have Suzanne's Vimeo up instead
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Of will be back at 230 for conquering the world of state documents, a panel discussion with Suzanne Hager do these Jones and Alicia Clovis will. I'll see you then.
Jen Kirk, Utah State University: Thank you. Suzanne event for your presentation.
Ben Chiewphasa: Next Gen.