The Big Screen Gets Better
0In March of 2014 I wrote about the excitement of launching the Robert Hart Digital collection on the new 42 inch kiosk in the McClay Library at Queen’s. Today I have new pictures. Since that initial launch in 2014, Special Collections has assembled a diverse collection of digital collections utilising Omeka as an exhibition platform. On occasion I have blogged about these and collected them in our Special Collections instance. Over this same period we have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to build capacity and lay the ground work for more ambitious future digital endeavours. Additional server hardware has been acquired and Special Collections has broadened its digital offerings deploying on a wider series of platforms including ContentDM, custom Ruby on Rails applications and deployment of more sophisticated Omeka exhibitions.
Last week Special Collections unveiled a new unified portal launching pad giving public access to the wider offerings. The Elo touchscreen remains a wonderful platform to display this new interface and provide a public access point. Exploring our digital collections and enjoying the curated exhibitions offered is just so much fun on the big screen. Big sweeping gestures offer a particularly exciting and engaging way to enjoy them. The new launch pad is clean, fresh and really lends itself to the large display. Future plans look towards its wider deployment and continued unification of Special Collections look and feel.
In the meantime, if you are in McClay Library take advantage of the opportunity to try out the new interface and enjoy our digital exhibitions as they are meant to be experienced.
To learn even more about how and why we create digital exhibitions and the tools we use you would be very welcome to joining us on 5 October for our next workshop: Digital Tools, Trends and Methodologies for the Social Sciences and Humanities