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A brave new world: Archives on the web

A brave new world: Archives on the web. Tracy Wilkinson Archivist St John’s College, Cambridge. Cambridge College Archives. Institutional archives Personal papers. St John’s Top 5 Special Collections Spotlight Archives on the Move Archive of the Month.

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A brave new world: Archives on the web

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  1. A brave new world: Archives on the web Tracy Wilkinson Archivist St John’s College, Cambridge

  2. Cambridge CollegeArchives • Institutional archives • Personal papers

  3. St John’s Top 5 • Special Collections Spotlight • Archives on the Move • Archive of the Month • Virtual Solutions to Manuscript Display

  4. What are they? • Archives on the Move: an historical walking tour app using original sources and images • St John’s Top 5: online exhibition which spotlights five of the best of ‘something’ from the College’s archive collections. • Special Collections Spotlight: image based blog highlighting exceptional items and upcoming events featuring manuscripts and archives in the College. • Archive of the Month: online exhibition featuring innovative & thematic manuscript display

  5. How did all 4 come about? • Websites needed updating • Desire to engage new users • Need to motivate current users to look at Archive in a new way

  6. How I develop them • Search collection for items anyone can identify with • Isolate a theme • Display the manuscript as an object - content not always the focus

  7. Technical Stuff • Scan the images into high-res jpegs • Optimise images for the web • Insert text & images into content management system • Add links • Write news story

  8. Get the Message Out • Email • Facebook • twitter • News story

  9. Why do they work? • Use lots of images • Highlight physical qualities of document making them accessible to non-specialists • Shared theme brings the documents to life

  10. Benefits for the Archive • Engagement of younger technologically fluent users • Promotion of Archive & Special Collections • Justification of the Archive & continued existence • Support of those who influence departmental funding

  11. Final Thoughts • Variety is key to the pages’ mass appeal • Anyone can do it • The key is to think laterally and to think outside of the box

  12. Contact: t.wilkinson@joh.cam.ac.uk • http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/archives

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