‘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.

sdt26@cam.ac.uk

Tel. 01223 338662