1. 21st Century Online Exhibits:
Recommendations for the NIST Virtual Museum
Andrea Medina-Smith
Background & Current Status
When the NIST Virtual Museum (NVM) debuted in the late 1990s, it was an innovative and creative way to explore and highlight NIST’s history.  
Currently, there are two types of exhibits on the NVM: (1) there are 14 exhibits created by ISO; and (2) 10 exhibits created and maintained by lab researchers, but linked to on the NVM. However, overtime, the look and feel of the NVM has become dated.
Requirements
The NIST Museum is in need of an easy to use and secure way to continue to tell stories that are interesting and relevant today. A further call to action: the webserver that houses the ISO exhibits will be retired at a date in the near future. I was asked to report on tools for use, to write recommendations based on those findings, and provide a plan and timeline for implementation of any new tools. From the beginning of this process I understood that the right tool would be a hosted platform designed to tell stories without the need for a programmer on staff.
Rubric showing the reviewed tools’ strength against the ISO’s needs
Reviews
In the written report I reviewed the pros and cons of three products, Omeka, Google Cultural Institute, and CONTENTdm, as possible tools for future exhibits.
Screen captures of the NVM homepage and an exhibit.
Recommendations
The expense (both staff time and money to run the server) of continuing to maintain the current museum server is no longer a benefit to the NIST Research Library. I therefore recommended that the server be shut down and to stop maintaining the legacy exhibits. Ultimately, the following recommendations were provided to management:
Migrate digital objects from legacy exhibits to NIST Digital Archives (CONTENTdm)
Adopt Google Cultural Institute for new exhibits
Create a preservation copy of legacy exhibits on ISO servers, but use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to maintain access for foreseeable future
Connect with lab exhibit authors to be sure they are transferred into Drupal and maintain screenshots for those exhibits that are abandoned
Approved Plans
Retire the current NVM server and link to legacy exhibits via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Migrate select digital objects from legacy exhibits to NIST Digital Archive (CONTENTdm).
Use Google Cultural Institute for new exhibits.
Abandon lab-created exhibits.
Schedule
Summary
The effort to bring the NIST Virtual Museum into the 21st century will include creating new, secure, and visually current exhibits using the Google Cultural Institute platform, linking to legacy exhibits via the Wayback Machine, and creating specialized CONTENTdm collections to highlight select digital objects from those past exhibits. This work will continue to make the NVM a relevant and respected resource moving forward.
Task
Schedule
Select tools for future exhibits
April 2016
Select digital objects to be loaded into the NIST Digital Archive
May – June 2016
Migrate legacy content to NIST Digital Archive
July – August 2016
Shut down current museum server
September 2016
Select and upload objects into Google Cultural Institute (GCI)
October – December 2016
Plan new exhibit for GCI
January – March 2017
Tool
Hosted
Storytelling
Programmer
CONTENTdm
Yes No
Google Cultural Institute
Omeka
The NVM has played the important role of bringing the history of NIST to the public beyond those who can visit the Gaithersburg campus.
While the exhibits serve as archival materials in their own right and can be maintained as such, it is wholly expected that the main NVM page and any new exhibits take on a current aesthetic and employ basic web content standards.
NOTE: Identification of commercial entities in this poster is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
INST 744 CMDA Capstone, May 2016