2. Displays on a Dime Quick, Collaborative, and Economical Approaches to Library Outreach Presented by: Dowling College Librarians Michael Aloi, Lisa Esposito, Joyce Gotsch, Diane Holliday, and Chris Kretz February 3, 2005

3. Introduction Who Are We? Who Are You?

4. Today’s Goals Collaboration –Learning from each other Practice Creating Displays

5. Displays as Outreach Why we think displays are important Who we are reaching When we do displays How we do them What kinds of displays do we do

6. How We Do Displays Collaboratively Cheaply

7. Kinds of Displays Fixed Traveling Rapid Response Online

10. What Are Fixed Displays? Located in permanent cases. Installed for a long period of time. Involve a lot of planning. Include objects as well as library materials.

11. The Value of Fixed Displays Encourages use of collection. Enhances library atmosphere. Shows support for the community. Re-enforces connection with students and faculty. Displays encourage us to look at our collection in new ways.

12. Dowling-Related –Courses or Programs –Campus Events / Annual Theme –Faculty Activities Library-Related How Do We Choose Our Subjects?

13. Who is Our Audience? Students Faculty Administration Visitors

14. Materials Items in the collection –Real or photocopied Props –Loaned –Special Collections Reusable items –Boxes –Fabric –Bookstands

15. Annual Theme Celebrating Italian-American Culture.

16. Special Collections The Gilded Age

17. School of Aviation Celebrating 100 Years of Flight

18. Faculty-Led Field Trips “Dowling Digs Wyoming” led by Dr. John Tanacredi

19. Special Collections D-Day: 60 th Anniversary

20. A New Course (offered by the Visual Arts Dept.) From the Sketchbook to the Stage

21. Faculty Lecture Series Goya: Witchcraft & Superstition

22. How This Might Work for You: Activities related to: –People on your staff –Community Members –Non-profit community groups Remember: Use the activity to promote your collection!

23. Some Things to Keep in Mind Lock up valuable stuff (objects, reference materials, etc.) Leave some things out for browsing Provide a bibliography with more materials, websites, etc.

24. Have Display, Will Travel

25. How Do We Choose Our Subjects? Campus Activities Outside the Library –Faculty Lecture Series Outside Organization’s Events Held at the College –Long Island EcoSummit

26. Faculty Lecture Series Goya: Witchcraft & Superstition

27. Long Island EcoSummit

28. Who is the Audience? Students Faculty Administration Visitors

29. Permission: To Ask or Not To Ask? Is your display going to invade the space of the event or participants?

30. Where Are Our Materials Going?

31. Into the Wilderness… Traveling displays take items out of the safety and control of the library. This affects item selection.

32. Additional Supporting Items Bibliographies Faculty author stickers Book stands Simple fabrics

33. The Value of Traveling Displays Visibility for the library Shows library support for community activities Outreach to new patrons who may never have set foot in the library, but now they see that the library has materials on a topic that interests them.

34. Rapid Response Displays – How To Choose The Subjects The event may be a current news item: –The Death of Ronald Reagan –September 11 attacks An item of community interest: –Local activity or event –Town council vote Other items of high patron interest: –New movie based on a particular book

35. These displays should be very visible and located in high-traffic areas of the library.

36. Design Process Determine topic and audience Check catalog for adequacy of holdings Pull books and examine for eye appeal - color, size, condition, illustrations, etc. Brainstorm types of objects/artifacts that would be appropriate – Put out APB Gather all materials Start playing!

37. Putting It All Together Mark the spot Determine elevations Anchor the display with your largest, eye-catching item Distribute books by sub-topic, size, color, or illustrations Scatter open spaces with topic-related “medium-sized stuff”

38. Finishing Touches Stand back, check for balance, range of textures, and esthetics Walk away and return later for a “first impression” or Review display in a mirror Signage Handouts

39. Directions for Activity Break into groups of 5: Find people with objects similar to yours (think: theme). Each group will be given a box of “stuff”. Use your objects and “stuff” to create a display on a table. Be prepared to talk about your display (use of color, height, objects, etc.)

40. Online, Displays Never Die Showcase what you’re doing Document what you have done Create a continuing resource Dowling Library Displays Page

41. The Display Web Page Keep it simple One or two images Links

42. Archive of Past Displays

43. The Power of Linking

44. What’s Involved Photography Web page creation/maintenance Bibliographies

45. Creating PDFs for Free DocMorph (National Library of Medicine) http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorp h/docmorph.htm Free registration Upload files on the web Converts them to PDFs (or TIFFs, text, or synthesized speech)

46. The Truth About Displays Highly visible, economical and effective Invite people to think of the Library and collection in new ways Think outside of the case Many hands make light work

47. For More Information Presentation and Bibliography available at: www.dowling.edu/library/aboutus/di me.shtm www.dowling.edu/library/aboutus/di me.shtm