Engaging with books you cannot touch: interactive multimedia to expose library treasures

Abstract

Interactivity has proved a successful way to engage visitors of science museums. However, it is not a common practice when the objects to exhibit are artefacts or, as in the case of this paper, books. A study was set up to investigate the driving criteria for the ‘The Life and Work of William Butler Yeats’ exhibition at the National Library of Ireland and compare those with the visitors’ opinions. Books, notebooks and personal belongings of the poet have been digitized and used to create a rich and varied exhibition that used both interactivity and multimedia. The result of a visitors' survey showed that the variety was a key factor for the success of the exhibition: different people engaged with different contents and different medium to different degrees. The design of the ambience is critical: dim lights and the use of audio as a medium have to be carefully planned to avoid annoying instead of engaging.

Keywords:

• Digital imaging
• Library exhibition
• Interactive multimedia

Acknowledgements

The authors are very much in debt to the National Library of Ireland for granting permission to carry out the study. Many thanks to Catherine Fahy, Ciara McDonald, and to Sarah O'Connor, all of whom graciously gave their time. We acknowledge the invaluable insights provided by the discussions with the team at Martello Media, in particular Peter Whittaker and Rob Reid. Finally we are grateful to all those visitors who took the time to respond to the questionnaire and to the staff working in the exhibition for their help with the questionnaire collection. This study was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Management.

Notes

*http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttpbooks.html

*Designed and developed by the British Library and Armadillo Systems http://www.turningthepages.com/

*No question investigated if the visit was planned or happened because the person was already in the Library.

Problems are likely to emerge soon after the opening later installations are fixed and the problems solved.