‘Found in the belly of a cod-fish’Promoting Special Collections On-line
Not about fish guts• Unlikely things in unlikely places• Lots of small collections in Cambridge, in smaller libraries without huge
amounts of resources• Ideas for publicizing special collections on-line• Getting information on special collections on-line• Not being intimidated by Web-stuff - part of an overall promotional
strategy
Why bother?
• Uniqueness of special collections
• Raising your profile, internally & externally
• Materials for fund-raising & promotion
• Conservation
• More you put in the more you get out in terms of help & support
Why bother? 2
What to do? 1
• General introduction & highlights1, 2
• Featured book3, 4
• Exhibitions5, 6
• Collections7
What to do? 2
• Subjects8
• Timeline9, 10, 11
• Educational Resources12, 13
• Galleries, Indexes & Databases14, 15, 16, 17, 18
What you need?
• Interest in your collection
• Some sort of survey1
• Some way of obtaining & processing pictures
• Some way of getting things on to the Web
Think about your audience
– Promotion & Awareness?
– Education?
– Research Tool?
What are you doing with you web-pages?
Selecting things
• Historical importance of material
• Photogenic qualities• Uniqueness – copy-
specific features rather1 than content
• Relevance to organization
• Topicality
Getting hold of images
• Buy a camera• Borrow someone else’s camera• Use pre-existing pictures• Get other people to take pictures for you• Photo-editing software – Adobe Photoshop
Getting it up
• Computing support• Doing it yourself 1.
CMS1, 2
• Doing it yourself 2. HTML
• Web 2.0
HTML<h1>Manuscripts</h1><img alt=“Detail from the Epistles of Othea showing Othea pointing to a clock“
src="http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/cms_misc/images/library/H.5,_f.5r2.jpg" /><p>The Library's special collections … Special Collections Librarian (tel. 01223 339393).
</p><h3><a href="http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/manuscripts/
medieval_manuscripts/">Medieval Manuscripts</a></h3><p>M. R. James's Descriptive Catalogue of … during the Library's opening hours. </p><h3><a href="http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/manuscripts/
post_medieval/">Post-Medieval Manuscripts</a> …</h3><p>In completing his catalogue … on this website.</p><p><em>The College is greatly indebted to Mr N. J. R. James and Cambridge University
Press for their permission to publish James's work in this new form.</em></p><h3><a href="http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/manuscripts/
oriental_manuscripts/">Oriental Manuscripts and Papyrus Fragments</a></h3><p>The Library's collections include … and Holger Kockelmann.</p>
Issues
• Archiving• Metadata• Conservation
• Security• Copyright1, 2
Fin
Stewart Tiley, Academic Services Librarian, St John’s College, Cambridge.
Tel. 01223 338662