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The World Wide Web: A New Medium for Professional Communications
Eric H. Schnell, M.L.S.

Presentations and Exhibits

Using the World Wide Web to create and deliver presentations, workshops, and other instructional programs brings a whole new dimension to these activities. In the past, the use of overhead transparencies has been the medium of choice for most library presentations. The personal computer and graphical presentation software added color and visual effects but often contained the same content as the transparencies. The Web allows the librarian to change the visual information used in a presentation from bullet form to that which includes direct Internet connectivity, document interactivity, and multimedia resources. As more online catalogs and database systems begin to use the Web interface, demonstrations using electronic resources and databases will be more seamless, require less software, and allow networked resources to be displayed within the Web browser window.

A presentation consisting of simple HTML and graphics files can be saved and recalled from a server, a floppy disk, or any other portable storage device. A Web presentation can be given from a non-networked workstation as long as all referenced documents are saved on a floppy disk, however, there are distinct advantages to mounting a presentation on a server. For instance, a librarian can place additional resource links into documents which, because of time or scope, could not be included in the original presentation. Individuals attending the presentation, and those who could not, can revisit the presentation afterward and follow up on the additional resources and hypertext references.

World Wide Web techniques not only can be applied to presentations, but also can also be useful for organizing online versions of traditional library exhibits. There are several advantages Web exhibits have over traditional ones. Most library exhibits have a finite lifespan and are rotated on a frequent basis. Once the exhibit's display time is completed, the only reminders that it existed are a catalog and photographs. Traditional exhibits are also accessible only by those patrons who visit the library during the time when physically available. The networked environment of the Web allows an online exhibit to be viewed by anyone, at anytime, whether or not they visit the library. A Web exhibit becomes a permanent record or electronic archive of the exhibit's intellectual and visual content.

Traditional exhibits are also limited in size and content by the available number and types of display cases. Based on these restrictions, decisions are made on which materials are to be included or excluded. Web versions of library exhibits are not bound by the same physical constraints. Since disk space is less expensive than display cases, more artifacts can appear in an electronic version of the exhibit than in a traditional display. Finally, the Web provides librarians with the tools to build complex multimedia productions which would be difficult to include in traditional exhibit space. The inclusion of still and moving images into Web exhibit documents allows the designer to include a wider variety of resources, creating a more interactive exhibit.

There are many examples of online exhibits already available. One such exhibit is called Inquire, Learn, Reflect: May 4th, 1970 25 Years of Remembrance. [1] This Web exhibit is an online representation of a physical exhibit on display at Kent State University in Ohio devoted to the shooting of four students by National Guardsmen. The physical exhibit was displayed on campus through July 14, 1995; however, the online version is intended to be on display indefinitely.

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The text of this article is published by The Haworth Press, Inc. (10 Alice Street, Binghamton, New York 13905-1580) in IRSQ: Internet Reference Services Quarterly (The Journal of Innovative Information Practice, Technologies, and Resources) Vol. 1, Issue 4 (1996), Lyn Elizabeth Martin, Editor-in-Chief.

Page URL: http://bones.med.ohio-state.edu/eric/papers/irsq/present.html