Demystifying & Integrating Web 2.0 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Demystifying and Integrating Web 2.0 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Jennie Pu , Senior Library Associate, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Deborah Vincelli , Electronic Resources Librarian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Our collection of books and periodicals relating to the history of art is one of the most comprehensive in the world.

The Library also has an extensive collection of subscription electronic resources.

Watson Library Patrons

Our primary mission is to support the research needs of Metropolitan Museum staff.

The Library’s Instruction Program focuses on the Museum’s curatorial, conservation and research staff.

Patron Perceptions Art History is a discipline that has relied on more traditional print sources.

Suspicion of non-subscription online resources

Patron Research Needs Specific, idiosyncratic, and “point of need” Searching for the missing piece of an obscure research puzzle – e.g. provenance research

I need information regarding artists

marking their work with a cipher of

their initials. I am interested in a

habit of “puzzling” the letters by

nesting, overlapping with a

simultaneous mirroring, or perhaps

overlapping in a rotating sequence. I

would like to uncover something

treating 16 th -18 th century practices

- 16 th century Italian even better.

Sample Curatorial Query

Library Staff Adopts Web 2.0

Watson Library staff began experimenting with Web 2.0 tools in September 2006.

Capitalizing on this buzz, a volunteer team of interested staff was formed to explore these new tools.

The Web 2.0 Team Circulation Serials ILL Electronic Resources CJK Acquisitions Library Systems Cataloging Reference Left to right: Lisa Beidel, Erika Hauser, Robyn Fleming, Deborah Vincelli, Renée Watson, Jennie Pu, Angela Washington, Dan Lipcan & John Lindaman.

A Few Things You Should Know About The Web 2.0 Team …

Auto-didactic and experimental in nature

Had the support of the Chief Librarian

Used Web 2.0 tools to organize itself

The Web 2.0 Team

met to give informal

presentations to

team members on

different Web 2.0

tools.

The team created a wiki to place our presentation notes.

Each team member worked on a tool.

LibraryThing Wikis Blogs Flickr Podcasts Del.icio.us CiteULike Quintura PennTags RSS AquaBrowser Google Notebook Google Alerts Google Docs Google Scholar

Google Book Search

Demystifying Web 2.0 Class: Instructional Goals

Demystify the idea of Web 2.0

Present Web 2.0 tools as relevant to the Museum environment

Address our patrons’ concern with privacy and quality

How Did We Accomplish This?

Selected seven Web 2.0 tools :

blogs

wikis

del.icio.us

Flickr

Google Notebook

RSS

podcasts

Lead By Example

Avoided “Tech Talk”

Used Relevant Examples

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/73416633@N00/86737659/

Concern with Privacy and Quality

We developed a mantra for our class: “ Content can be public, completely private, or restricted to a select group of colleagues – you decide .” Concern with Privacy

We invited our patrons to evaluate information critically regardless of the container … Concern with Quality

“ Not all wikis are nightmarish, unvetted entities that exist in the wild … like any other online tool, wikis can be authoritative sources if authored and edited by experts.” (Quote from our class blog)

Marketing & Launch

Word of mouth Department liasons Committee meetings Emails Flyers Museum newsletter 2.0 marketing

Go to the customer

Customize content: show relevant examples

The Cloisters

We offered treats too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/1117398599/

Keeping momentum

All attendees were promptly followed-up with a short email and survey questions

Presenters shared their experience and tips with the rest of the team

The presentation blog was very much alive.

Results

High interest from staff Asian Art American Paintings Arts of Africa, Oceania Americas

Musical Instruments Medieval Modern Drawings and Prints

4 months: 32 departments, 250+ attendees European Paintings

New York Historical Society New York Metropolitan Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America

Feedback

I had heard of some of these tools before but hadn't considered them in a research context. I was especially surprised to see that institutions have begun to start Flickr accounts and blogs.

Many of the tools presented could be useful for understanding digital imaging and licensing issues . Photo by Mary Harrsch

Flickr has proven very handy in sharing fieldwork photographs.

I was relieved to know that, even as a compulsive note taker, I didn’t need to take endless notes.

I love the way this is taking fire.

-Chief Librarian

Watson Library 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoopidgerl / WatsINFO is the library’s internal blog

What information goes where

New library portal page: http://library.metmuseum.org

New:

RSS feeds

Calendar of Events

Library classes

Built on Wordpress

New E-Resources Instruction Team (ERIT) -subscription -traditional -new 2.0 tools Watson Library classes

Keeping track of who’s who in the library with Flickr

Google Calendar for seating chart Google Docs for reference schedule

Watson Library Open Houses

Ripple effects

New monthly lunches with Information Technology and Web 2.0 group

Curators have begun to use 2.0 tools, such as del.icio.us and Google Notebook

What worked well

Cross unit teams

Teams were:

voluntary

largely autonomous

free to experiment (google chat & meebo)

What worked not so well Keep better statistics

Suffer In Advance ‘ Snap the whip’ and figure it out as you go

Support from the head is key.

Jennie Pu and Deborah Vincelli The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Demystifying & Integrating Web 2.0 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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