How does UCC Library use exhibitions? How to create an exhibition? Use the LibGuide: http://libguides.ucc.ie/exhibitions/home as a starting point. Presentation as part of CPPD schedule in UCC Library (2017).

1. Exhibitions in UCC Library
16 May 2017 | Elaine Harrington

2. Contact Details
Elaine Harrington, Special Collections Librarian
e.harrington@ucc.ie | 021 4903484 | @walkerabroad
The Riverside: @theriversideUCC
http://blogs.ucc.ie/wordpress/theriverside/
http://libguides.ucc.ie/specialcollections

3. Why Exhibit?
Jessica Lacher-Feldman:
“we exhibit because we can, and because our holdings make for
great exhibits. Sharing our treasures with a broader audience is a
natural outcome of the work that we do. Finding opportunities to
take the materials out of the stacks and placing them in context in
an exhibition is exhilarating, challenging, and beneficial. What
better way is there to share what we […] do in the profession than
to feature our talents and treasures?”
(Exhibits in Archives & Special Collections Libraries. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2013. p.7)

4. First Thoughts?
So you want to do an exhibition?
When?
Why?
For whom?
How can we manage your expectations?

5. Funding
Getting ready the space.
Storyboards or vinyl text?
Images
Marketing material
Launch
Events
Staff time

6. Scheduling
Working with people inside and outside of UCC who all work on
other projects.
• Possible conservation requirements
• Possible creation of display mounts
• Design team for storyboards
• Other institutions and their administration
• Photographers
• Editors of images
• Printers of storyboards
• Team to mount exhibition
• Library personnel involved in exhibition.
What else are YOU doing?

7. Design
Visit the exhibition space in advance – know its dimensions.

8. Material Selection
Objects are displayed in a context:
• The choice of objects
• Their place in the room or the case
• Their place in relation to each other
• The interpretation that has been given
Books as objects?
Impediments to selection?
How to use audio? Bill Fontana’s White Sound
Use of replicas
Image selection – upload to Dropbox so all can see.

9. Exhibition Cases
There are three cases
available: Two tall cases
and one clam case.
Choose the exhibited page
wisely!
Too large to fit in a case?
http://www.castlebar.ie/mayo_historical_and_
archaeological_society/Viking_Ship_Replica.shtml

10. Images & Permission - Cervantes

11. Images – Modern Irish Pilgrimage

12. Writing
Are visitors there to look and do or to read?
Know your audience or your average 14 year old!
Entire exhibition text: possibly no more than 625 – 1250 words.
Storyboard panels: 150-200 words with small broken up paragraphs.
Labels: Identification purposes usually. They should have no more than
75-100 words.
Fonts: where do you stand? People generally view from about 2-3 feet
away so standard 24-36 point font for panels is recommended. Labels
can be smaller 12-24.

13. Example of label
from British Library
training activity

14. Storyboard Design

15. Printing & Mounting
Printing and mounting with a company is a week.
Doing it oneself:
• Arrangement of transport and delivery
• Various equipment:
 Steel tape measure
 Laser spirit level
 Hanging equipment
 A step ladder can be provided if sufficient notice is given.
Hanging always takes longer than expected.
Spotting mistakes!

16. Marketing
Scoping Document on Visual Anarchy in the UK – A
Comics Tradition (British Library): rise of comics and
graphic art. Film and television adaptations of comics.

17. Marketing

18. Launch
Lights, Camera, Action?

19. Student Exhibition: HI 6091
Role of student exhibitions:
• Classes that go beyond ‘show & tell’
• Real world experience
• Analyse documents and through them tell
a story to the public in exhibits
• Bring the primary sources to a wider
audience.
• How your research can be conveyed
visually and cohesively?
A series of classes covered:
• Exhibitions and student exhibitions
• Blogging
• Handling
• Reprographics
• Copyright and permissions
Result: Online exhibition formed by a series
of blog posts on The River-side.

20. Student Exhibition: HI 6091
Students consider all aspects of an exhibition through a series of tasks & readings
Online Exhibitions Task #1a: How does the writer engage the interest of the reader?
“Cambridge Illuminations Virtual Exhibition.” Fitzwilliam Museum.
2005. http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/cambridgeilluminations
"Thinking and Experiencing ‘Techne’: Experiments with Amber." Victoria & Albert Museum. 17
January 2017. http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/research-department/thinking-and-experiencing-
techne-experiments-with-amber
Blogging Task #1b: How does the writer engage the interest of the reader?
Williams, Sierra. "Blogging Platforms Are Not Neutral: Challenging the Underlying
Assumptions of Our Technology." LSE Blog: Maximising the Impact of Academic
Research. 27 July 2016. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/07/27/blogging-
platforms-are-not-neutral-challenging-the-underlying-assumptions-of-our-digital-infrastructure/
Green, Duncan. “An Antidote to Futility: Why Academics (and Students) Should Take Blogging
/ Social Media Seriously.” LSE Blog: Maximising the Impact of Academic Research. 26
October 2015. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/10/26/why-academics-and-
students-should-take-blogging-social-media-seriously/

21. Student Exhibition: HI 6091
Copyright Task: You wish to submit a paper to 31st Irish Conference of Medievalists. The
paper topic is your response and skills learned in creating an exhibition in the form of blog
posts, e.g. The Book of Kells series of blog posts. What permissions / copyright clearances
are for required for this paper? For more about the conference:
http://www.irishmedievalists.com/archives/927.
Marketing: Choose a cultural institution: gallery / library / museum. It can be national or
international. What do they do to promote their exhibitions? An exhibition may be targeted at a
particular set but do the promotional activities match that set?
Social Media: Read the documentation UCC has created for how to use UCC's social media:
https://www.ucc.ie/en/dewg/socialmedia/
Series of events for
Facing Pages: The Art
of the Great Book of
Ireland

22. LibGuide: Creating Exhibitions
Exhibition LibGuide created for all but particularly for anyone who
wants to do an exhibition.
• Uses examples from exhibitions previously in UCC Library.
• Includes documents e.g. layout of space, schedule of activity.

23. Recommended Reading
Creating Exhibitions
Lacher-Feldman, Jessica. Exhibits in Archives and Special Collections Libraries.
USA: Society of American Archivists, 2013.
Matassa, Freya. Organizing Exhibitions: A Handbook for Museums, Libraries and
Archives. London: Facet, 2014.
National Library of Scotland and University of Edinburgh. National Exhibiting the
Written Word. Edinburgh, 2011.
Vincent, Helen. “The Library and the Display of Text.” IFLA 2012
Using Exhibitions in Teaching & Learning
Mitchell, Seiden & Taraba, eds. Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate
Learning Through Special Collections and Archives. Chicago: Association of
College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association,
2012.