Devising Best Practises in Digital Curation

Trevor Owens has shared a thoughtful discussion looking towards considering a Style Guide Digital Collection Hypertexts. In it he considers what could become shared and best practise approach to the  online exhibition. I was much struck but his reference to ‘ticky-tacky interpretive analytical writing’ which he suspects is being increasingly found given the availability of such powerful tools as Omeka, Neatline, Exhibit or even WordPress-anchored virtual exhibit digital spaces. Spaces, I suspect he is intimating have been devised with lesser thought to the new media that we are starting to tap. He locates an interesting topology of the functions and parts that makeup these ‘exhibits’ –  exhibition, illustrated publication, expansive collection of sources, and rooted in hypertext. Interesting.

This initiates a much needed and emergent discussion about how we stage an online exhibition and starts to consider the various aspects including appreciating the audience(s) and the new ways they engage with these exhibits, and critically reminds that it is very easy to loose sight of the simple basics that would ground the more traditional exhibition. A very interesting and recommended read.