NYLA: De-mystifying 2.0 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Demystifying & Integrating Web 2.0

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York Library Association

November 6, 2008

Jennie Pu, Senior Library Associate

Deborah Vincelli, Electronic Resources & Instructional Services Librarian

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 anobscure research puzzle – e.g. provenanceresearch

I need information regarding artistsmarking their work with a cipher of their initials. I am interested in a habit of “puzzling” the letters bynesting, overlapping with asimultaneous mirroring, or perhaps overlapping in a rotating sequence. I would like to uncover somethingtreating 16th-18th century practices - 16th 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

CirculationSerials

ILLElectronic 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 Teammet to give informalpresentations to team members on different Web 2.0tools.

•

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

1. Demystify the idea of Web 2.02. Present Web 2.0 tools as relevant to the

Museum environment3. 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

Wordof

mouth

Departmentliasons

Committeemeetings

Emails

Flyers

Museumnewsletter

2.0marketing

Go to the customer

Customize content: show relevant examples

The Cloisters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/1117398599/

We offered treats too.

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

Asian Art

American Paintings

Arts of Africa,OceaniaAmericas

High interest from staff

Musical Instruments

Medieval

Modern

Drawings and Prints

European Paintings

4 months: 32 departments, 250+ attendees

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

Follow up: a year later

We surveyed Web 2.0 class attendees a year later

80% of respondents used at least one Web 2.0 tool

Over 50% used a Web 2.0 tool in the past week

The most popular tool is flickr

“I have a delicious space for all the online manuscripts and library catalogues I need for my exhibition. My research assistant and I use it multiple times daily.”

“I've used flickr to find architectural images for a timeline page.”

“I use Google Notebook to maintain research documents and spreadsheets from work and home.”

“I've used Wikis and RSS feeds to receive relevant information for any research we might be doing and to keep up to date with industry trends.”

“I have created a wiki on the subject of book conservation.”

Various ways of integrating Web 2.0 into work

Watson Library 2.0

New technology should always:

Solve existing problems, or

Make work easier

There had to be a better way

Problem: creep of the internal shared drive

Solution: WatsINFO

Meeting notes

Conference reports

Announcements

Projects

Changes/updates in workflow

News bites

And much more

What goes on WatsINFO:

Comments invite participation by all and build community

The old library manual

Sustainable library IT

Built on Wordpress

Many free plug-ins

no programming required

Multiple admins = no bottleneck

Google docs for reference desk schedules

Google Calendar to schedule swing work stations

Example of an area calendar

Workstation, volunteer name & staff supervisor

Class registration sheets on Google Docs

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

New E-Resources Instruction Team (ERIT)

-subscription

-traditional

-new 2.0 tools

Online class guides can be downloaded or printed

Library Units => Teams

• Cross-functional

• Teams are:– voluntary– largely autonomous– free to experiment

Ripple effects: Museum 2.0

Watson Library Open Houses

New monthly lunches with Information Technology Department

http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/

The MMA official facebook page

Feeds to Museum podcasts

Feeds to Medieval Garden (blog)

Links back to authoritative content on MMA website

Links to the Met on

YouTube

http://youtube.com/user/metmuseum

http://youtube.com/user/metmuseum

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

Support from the head is key.

Thank you! Please feel free to contact us at:

Jennie.Pu@metmuseum.org

Deborah.Vincelli@metmuseum.org