Presentation on social media in a small archives given at the Manitoba Libraries Conference, May 2012

1. Breaking barriers without
breaking the bank
Amanda Hill
Hillbraith Ltd.
[Deseronto Archives]

2. A bit of context…

5. Deseronto
• Population: 1,900
• First settled by Mohawks in 1784
• Became a major timber-processing centre in late
19th century
• Site of Royal Flying Corps pilot training airfields in
WWI

6. Deseronto Public Library
• Began life as the Deseronto Mechanics’
Institute in 1885
• Became Public Library in 1896
• Has been collecting/keeping records,
photographs etc. for many years

7. 1896 Library Rules
8. No one shall be permitted to take books from
the shelves except the Librarian and assistant
and members of the Board of Management.
9. Noise, audible conversation, or disorderly
conduct in the Library and Reading Room is
strictly prohibited.

8. Problems with first librarian…
• Arthur P. Brown, librarian 1891-1915
“The question of refusal on part of the Librarian to issue certain books to various individuals
was raised by the Secretary who took the ground that we should not have books in the
Library at all about which there was any reasonable doubt. Several books were named
among which were the following:-
The Lady of Quality ['A Lady of Quality' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1896]
Maggie [by Stephen Crane, 1893]
Tess of Duberville ['Tess of the d'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy, 1891]
On the Sunny Shore [by Henryk Sienkiewicz, 1897]
It was moved by Mr. Costigan, seconded by Mr. Copland that we expunge these books
entirely.
The Librarian was instructed that outside of these books he was hereafter to refuse no
person provided the books desired were in the Library.”
Deseronto Public Library Board Minutes, December 13, 1898

9. Deseronto Archives
• Formally established by 1997 by-law
• Total annual budget: $11,000
• Occupies a corner of the Library
• Part-time archivist

11. IT situation in 2007
• Approximately 1997

12. IT situation in 2007
• Town website (no access for updating by archives
staff)
• Limited IT support
• Archives’ PC attached to Deseronto Public
Library’s network & Internet
– Network drive, backed up
• No email account for Archives

13. • Collection rich in images
• Archives poor in resources
• Completely lacking any sort of online presence

14. Solution
• Use free (or nearly-free) online tools to:
– act as the Archives’ public face
– share images and news about the materials in the
collection
• Use those tools to promote the work of the
Archives and raise funds for further
development of programs

15. Initial online steps for Deseronto
Archives
• Sep 2007:Gmail & Google Calendar account for
Archives
• Oct 2007: Blog set up
$47.99
• Jan 2008: Flickr account opened
• Jul 2008: Moved to ‘Pro’ Flickr account
• Jan 2009: Began using Twitter

16. Whistle-stop tour…

17. Funding for digitization
• 2009: Town of Deseronto contributed $4,000
for a digitization project
• Allowed for rapid addition of new content to
Flickr

18. Outreach not just online…
• Articles in bi-monthly town newsletter,
delivered to every home
• Annual Heritage Day/Family Day competition
in conjunction with Deseronto Public School
• Attendance at Town events

19. Pushing the boundaries
• …going beyond ‘us’ telling ‘them’
• Seeking content from users that we couldn’t
meet locally

20. User-generated content?
• Grant of $16,000 from Ontario’s Museums and
Technology Fund, 2010, with funding of
$4,000 from the Town of Deseronto
• Used to build and generate content for a new
website: ‘About Deseronto’:
http://aboutdeseronto.omeka.net/

21. Absence…
Physical
distance
from home
town
Feelings of
affection for
home town
with apologies to Jessica Hagy of ‘Indexed’
http://thisisindexed.com

22. Low-cost, sustainable approach
Just launching a beta
version of their hosted
service in April 2010

23. Omeka.net plans

25. Disadvantages
• Initially, Omeka.net did not offer an option for
users to upload materials direct
– Which had been the whole point of ‘About
Deseronto’
• Hard to get people to engage
– Very small population, which doesn’t help!

26. New direction
• Oral histories
– Archives Board members helped to identify
potential interviewees
– 10 interviews conducted during the course of the
project
– Big learning curve – technology, technique

27. Christmas in the funeral home

28. ‘About Deseronto’
• Partial success
• ‘Contribute’ option now available, but not
really being used!

30. Facebook
• Set up a Facebook account a year ago
(reluctantly) for the Archives to help promote
Doors Open through an event page
• An unexpected success

31. How do we measure success?

32. Basic usage statistics
• 1,300 images on Flickr
– 57 images with comments
– 200 images ‘favorited’
– Over 200,000 views
• 96 blog posts, 8 pages
– 99 comments
• 502 tweets
– 279 followers

33. Impact
• Comments and notes from users
• Collaboration with users
• New accessions
– virtual, digital and tangible
• New creative works
• Funding for new projects
• Support for our work

34. Grateful users

35. Flickr comments

36. Flickr comments

37. Flickr notes

38. User-generated notes

39. User-generated notes

40. Virtual collections

41. Virtual collections

42. New digital materials
• WWI Royal Flying Corps camps
• Camp Mohawk images on Flickr and blog
• Email from son of one of the flight instructors
at Camp Mohawk, mentioning a photograph
album

44. Postscript

45. A spur for creativity…
• A 15-year-old railway enthusiast

47. Advantages for Deseronto
• Walking tour
• Display panels for Doors Open in 2011

49. Walking tour

51. Financial impact
• $4,000 in 2009 for digitisation from Town of
Deseronto
• $20,000 received in 2010 for ‘About
Deseronto’ Omeka site
– 75% from Ontario Ministry of Culture
– 25% from Town of Deseronto

52. Facebook
• An unexpected success (150 ‘friends’ to date)
– More connections with local people than through
Twitter
– More help with identifying people/places/things
– Many more user-contributed photos, comments
– Lesson learnt: go to where your audience is!

53. Support for our work
• Social media audiences can be called upon in
times of need
– A lot of support on Facebook for the archives in
the light of cuts to the National Archival
Development Program in recent weeks

54. Disadvantages?

56. Things to consider
• Security/portability of images and metadata
from external web services
– Have backup copies
• Possibility of vandalism/inappropriate content
– Vigilance important (incidence negligible so far)

57. In summary
• Disadvantages heavily outweighed by advantages
• Try different things, see what works for your particular context
• See what other people are doing and shamelessly steal and copy
ideas
• Make your service as noticeable and available as possible
• You DON‘T need a big budget, a huge amount of time or a lot of IT
support to have
– a respectable online presence
– a significant impact on the world outside your walls

58. Final glimpses, final thought
You may never know
what results come of
your action, but if you
do nothing there will
be no result.
Mahatma Gandhi
HMR1-09-41 "C.P.R. Station. W'p'g.“
HMR1-09-40 "W'p'g Armories 1884. Harry in Motor“
1907

59. Contact details
• deseronto.archives@gmail.com
• http://deserontoarchives.wordpress.com
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/deserontoarchives/
• http://www.facebook.com/deseronto.archives
• http://aboutdeseronto.omeka.net
• @DeserontoArch on Twitter