A few thoughts on Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums

Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums by Franklin D. Vagnone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an impressive book which challenges people who manage house museums to really connect with the communities which surround the houses. It asks people to think about relevance and provides creative ways for exploring history. A big element is listening to the community, and reaching out to non-traditional audiences. While this book is about house museums it is relevant for thinking about local studies collections, and even about libraries as a whole. It is not about providing the answers, but about exploring lots of questions.

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Changing lives and enriching communities in #yxe - great work by @stoonlibrary

I came across the following headline in Infodocket (go and have a look at the link)

Saskatchewan: Saskatoon Public Library Dedicates Space for Truth and Reconciliation

You can read more about what the Saskatoon Library is doing in reconciliation.

The #Reconciliation Reading Room is now open at Frances Morrison Library! Come have a seat and browse our Indigenous collection. #reconciliationsk #yxe

A photo posted by Saskatoon Public Library (@saskatoonpubliclibrary) on Nov 21, 2016 at 8:52am PST

The description of the library, on their twitter account is "Changing lives and enriching communities in #yxe - Treaty 6 Territory and the homeland of the Métis."   This looks great.  Does your organisation acknowledge the local Indigenous community on your site? 

Collecting local industry for local studies

This article shows how a library is collecting information about their local craft brewing industry.  Oregan State University Library has key archives.  While is this currently a small collection, they are collecting it. Cornell University has a research wine library, and he Louis B Nunn Centre has an oral history collection about bourbon.

With the expansion of craft brewing in Australia there is a lot of potential for collecting oral history, ephemera and other material.

This is not the only area to explore.  There has been some very interesting work done by industries as this recent digital story about wool in Shetland shows.

How are you collecting local industry as part of local studies?

A few thoughts about The art of relevance

The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book asks a lot of questions about how museums interpret their relevance. It contains examples from museums, libraries, and other relevant places. It suggests ways to connect with new audiences, and encourages the exploration of partnerships. While written about museums there is much for libraries to ponder. The book challenges complacency.

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local studies needlepoint via @sallysetsforth

The following photograph came through my Flickr stream.  It is lovely and is local studies meets needlepoint.  The works are done in collaboration.  Have people partnered with local embroiderers as a way of recording the local environment.  There are lots of other groups who would be great partners too.

A few more of the pieces from "Threads of Footscray", showing at VU MetroWest until 23 Dec
photographed by Sally Cummings

The following image of   If you look at the version on Instagram you can see some more information about them - make sure you click through to see the photograph on Instagram so you can read Sally's comments.

A few more of the pieces from "Threads of Footscray", showing at VU MetroWest until 23 Dec. Beautiful needlepoint pieces stitched by community members, depicting scenes around Footscray. #needlepoint #embroidery #art #footscray #melbourne

A photo posted by Sally Cummings (@sallysetsforth) on Dec 14, 2016 at 3:16am PST

tracking the building of the Christchurch Central Library thanks to @ChristchurchLib

Christchurch City Library is providing lots of photographs of the construction of their new central library. They are tracking the building (see above) and some of the people involved (see below)


There are lots more photographs to look at, have a look at this album on Flickr.  This is a brilliant way to record this building for local studies, and it is a great way to tell the story of how things are changing for the community.  I wish more libraries would do this kind of public recording and storytelling for their communities. It is exciting to engage with the community in this way.

twitter archive on github thanks to @mhawksey

I am excited about this.  It is my first use of github, and yes, I did not have to do anything fancy but follow the directions, and it worked.  I now have an updating twitter archive on githib.

You can watch the video of instructions here.

I have been a fan of Tagsexplorer beta for a while (here is an example).