Exhibit.so: Witches of Harvard Art Museum

By Claudia Davidson

https://www.exhibit.so/exhibits/yeBTwfxsHQMV3nGgWVgs

I used Exhibit.so to create a “Witches of Harvard Art Museum” collection. I did so by searching Harvard Art Museum’s virtual collection with the keyword “witch.” I used images with IIIF manifest links, and found that most of the virtual collection has them. This assignment was enjoyable for me, as I left it genuinely feeling I had learned a new skill.

Initially, I struggled with figuring out where the actual IIIF manifest links are on the Harvard Art Museum images. It was easy enough to see whether each image used IIIF: If it does, there is a button right under the digital image that says “reuse via IIIF.” Clicking this brought me to a new tab. From there, I wasn’t immediately sure where to go. I tried putting the URL for that page into exhibit.so, but that was the wrong link. I searched for instructions and learned that I needed to click the information button in the top right corner, scroll down, and find the iiif manifest link there. I did this for five images and added them all to my exhibit.so collection. 

After I uploaded all the links, I still only saw one image in my exhibit.so collection. I played around with it a bit to troubleshoot the issue. I clicked “add item” and saw the list of images I had uploaded using the iiif links, but when I clicked one, it would just replace the other image in the collection. I couldn’t figure out how to display more than one at once. I realized the “docs” tab leads to instructions, which is a bit of a misleading name. I did not find these instructions to be helpful, as they didn’t walk you through the process step by step. I played around more and finally figured out that in order to add a new image, I first had to add a new story step, then click “add item” and select the next image. I definitely feel like it could be a bit more user friendly. It would be helpful if all the links you upload showed up as images on the page initially, then have the ability to drag them around to match different story steps. 

Despite some possible user friendliness improvements, the outcome looks great. The scroll feature looks classy and professional. The end product is very user friendly on the side of the audience, as all they have to do is scroll down. I did play around a bit with the zoom story step feature, though I didn’t utilize it in my final collection. This feature would be helpful for exhibits that want to examine individual items in depth. It would be useful for highlighting various portions of a document or elements of a painting, and takes the viewer easily through a storytelling experience. 

Technologies such as exhibit.so are excellent in many ways for advancing accessibility. These technologies transform collections that have previously been held only in person into virtual accessible experiences. This benefits a wide array of people for many reasons, including those with mobility disabilities, neurodivergencies or sensory issues that make being in public spaces difficult, financial constraints, transportation constraints, immunodeficiencies, and more. Virtual exhibits also make collections from across the county and across the globe accessible online. Even without a disability or other constraint, most people don’t have the time or means to travel to these. While many museums already have searchable databases of digitized items, someone would have to be looking for a specific item or theme to find this useful. Technologies like exhibit.io allow museums to curate these items into engaging and interactive exhibits, making it more likely that people will actually see them. 

Implementation challenges always include the question of user engagement and outreach. Though these technologies are excellent for creating seamless museum experiences online, how many people actually know about virtual museum exhibits? Many of the people who would most benefit from an at-home museum experience are also the people who might not know how to (or be able to) access it, especially elderly and low-income populations who are unable to easily get to physical museums. Those without internet connections or digital skills will still be unable to utilize these resources. Another challenge might be getting rights to digital items. IIIF makes it easy to reuse items that other institutions already use, which is a benefit for using exhibit.so. Digital training is ever-increasingly important in the library and museum world as more items become digitized. A growing focus on technologies like exhibit.so might be difficult for some staff who are used to only working with physical items.  It is important that museum and library staff get ongoing education to stay up-to-date on current practices and technologies. 

Exhibit.so could benefit from clearer instructions and more user-friendliness on the end of the creator, but it is still an excellent tool that yields beautiful virtual exhibits. People who are able to access these collections online will find it easy to navigate. For those who are unable to access these collections online from home but  can visit their local libraries, a good option would be for libraries to offer “virtual museum trip” programs. This is an innovative way to make these exhibits accessible to even more people.