Exhibitions within the library building may be a useful way of promoting services and collections, especially if exhibitions integrate with wider cross-platform promotional campaigns.
In practice, library staff often have to create exhibitions with limited display equipment, few financial resources, and limited time. Fortunately, much can be achieved even with these constraints.
Collaboration with local historians or groups may be an effective use of resources, but make sure everyone involved has a clear understanding of the exhibition aims, content and budget.
Choosing a topic
It’s often useful to tie in an exhibition with an anniversary, whether this is the anniversary of a local, national, or international event. By doing this, media coverage may be greatly increased and it can also raise the library service’s profile within the overall organisation, particularly if it helps the organisation to do something to mark an event.
Local anniversaries, or a local connection with a national anniversary or event, may be the most likely to achieve publicity and engagement.
National awareness days/weeks/months (e.g. Black History Month in October, LGBTQ+ History Month in February, Local & Community History Month in May) may also be a useful theme for exhibitions. Libraries Connected produces an annual calendar with relevant awareness campaigns that may inspire events and activities in libraries linked to the universal offers: https://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/resources
Other ideas that could be useful to inspire exhibitions are:
- The launch of a new local book
- The promotion of new service/resource/collection
- Supporting a new tourism initiative – e.g. guided walks
- A seasonal tie-in – e.g. Christmas, summer holidays
It’s as well to be mindful of the wider context of your exhibition. What may seem to be fairly innocuous can turn out to be controversial if there is a local or political sensitivity about the topic. It may be advisable to check with your organisation’s press office or communications team to make sure there are no issues with the topic you are proposing.
Arranging content
Images attract more attention than text so, depending on the theme of your exhibition, it may be worth considering large images and small amounts of text.
As most photographs held by local studies services are likely to be smaller than would ideally be required for an exhibition, it may be worth considering copying the image and then printing it as a larger photograph or print (copyright permitting). As well as having greater impact, this also creates a surrogate that means the original image is protected from any damage during display.
If you are doing a display on traditional display boards, try not to cram too much onto the boards. Small images with lots of small text may only engage those who are already engaged, rather than having the eye-catching appeal to attract wider interest. It may be more effective to have fewer, but larger, images, or to use graphic software to create content the same size as each exhibition board. If you have the facility to print larger than A3, you can then print this as one sheet. If not, then, depending on your software, it may be possible to print the content as tiled sheets that may then be stuck together.
Copyright
In terms of copyright, the Intellectual Property Office issued a copyright notice (copyright notice 5/2015) aimed at museums, galleries, libraries, archives and other institutions that may wish to exhibit copyright works. The notice stated that:
“In the UK, public exhibition is not an act restricted by copyright. This means that it is not an infringement of copyright to put a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work on public display (for example, in a display cabinet in a museum or gallery).” This relates to original documents and artefacts, and would not in itself permit the making of a copy for exhibition purposes.
Moving images
Moving images also attract interest and it is possible to create short videos from still images, with or without audio. If you have a TV screen available in your exhibition space, it should be possible to produce short video clips to play on a loop, as well as to upload to video-sharing sites and social media platforms.
Whilst Adobe Premiere Pro is the full-featured industry standard, much can be achieved with the more budget-friendly Adobe Premiere Elements. There are also free alternatives, such as DaVinci Resolve, Kdenlive and Lightworks.
Be aware that, according to the Intellectual Property Office (notice 2015/5) “playing or showing a sound recording, film or broadcast in a public place [without permission from the rights holder(s)] would usually be an infringement of copyright.”
Writing content
Simply exhibiting documents or artefacts is unlikely to engage casual interest. Generally, it is stories that engage people, so exhibitions should be planned with a particular theme, and content should be selected or created so that it contributes to a coherent narrative.
Ask yourself what is the unique story that your exhibition will tell. It may be useful to outline your narrative e.g. as bullet points, on post-it notes or as a mind map, and then select relevant resources from your collection.
Original documents and artefacts should be accompanied by explanatory captions. Captions need to convey a key message rather than be a description of the item. They must be short – ideally 14-21 words – and they need to communicate something to readers, rather than just describe what visitors can see for themselves.
People generally don’t read large blocks of text. Their eyes are drawn to images, headings, sub-headings, bulleted lists, and short captions. Any blocks of text may only be skimmed, so be mindful of this when writing content.
William Strunk, in his guide The Elements of Style in 1918, wrote:
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.
Write in a natural way that will resonate with your audience. Clear and precise language is usually more effective than flowery prose, which tends to distract from the exhibition content. Take care with typing, grammar and spelling. If possible, ask a colleague to proof read any content you create. Alternatively, printing proof copy and slowly reading it aloud to yourself may help you to spot any errors.
Remember the well-known design principle “KISS” – Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Environment and security
The safety and security of exhibition materials should be a paramount consideration when planning an exhibition of original documents or artefacts.
Original items should not normally be displayed without appropriate security – e.g. locked in a display cabinet – to protect against theft or damage, whether wilful or accidental.
The other main threat to display materials is the risk of damage as a result of inappropriate conditions in the display environment. In particular, the potential damage from light, heat, and humidity should be assessed before original sources are displayed.
British Standard 4971:2017 (Conservation and care of archive and library collections) offers guidance on exhibiting original items. It recommends that:
- Objects should not be placed on permanent display
- The duration of a display should be calculated with an understanding of the impact of the display environment on the objects
- The display period calculated should be based on a safe level of light exposure of the material displayed, depending on the sensitivity of the materials. Background lighting in the display area should also be assessed.
- The sensitivity of materials is measured in lux
- Exposure is measured in lux hours per year
- A table of sensitivity of materials to light is available at http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1444925073140
- The temperature should not exceed 24 degrees
- Relative humidity levels should be within recommended levels (see section 5.1.3 of BS 4971)
- Exhibition light sources either emit no UV or UV radiation emitted should be removed by the use of filters
It would be advisable to carry out a condition survey before exhibiting original items.
Borrowing artefacts
It may be worth considering asking to borrow artefacts or documents from other museums or repositories, if this is appropriate for the theme of your exhibition. Depending on the items, this may only be possible if you have secure exhibition facilities that meet the environmental conditions recommended in BS 4971.
Some museums offer loan services to schools and cultural institutions, so it is worth checking with the relevant museum. Be aware that if you are borrowing original items, you are likely to have to:
- Ensure that you have sufficient insurance cover for an agreed minimum amount
- Comply with security, display and handling requirements of the loaning institution
- Pay a loan and administration fee
- Pay for a condition survey and any pre-loan conservation of the items
- Arrange for suitable secure transport for the items
Publicity
Be mindful of copyright, especially in images. Make sure that you know the copyright status of any items you are using, particularly images, and ensure that you have assessed the risk of using the material for the purposes you wish. This is essential if you don’t have written permission from the rights holder(s) or a licence to use an orphan work.
Use your existing publicity channels to good effect, and try to include images that can be issued with press releases as this will make them more attractive to media organisations. If you have a blog, it can be useful to create a blog post that tells the story in more detail, and includes images of the exhibition.
If you have social media channels, rather than posting a standard poster, you are likely to have more impact by creating properly-sized images for each channel.
- Twitter
The size of inline images on Twitter in 2020 should be in a ratio of 16:9 so the suggested optimum size is 1200 x 675 pixels. Any images taller than this 16:9 proportion will be cropped on mobile and desktop feeds. - Facebook
The recommended size for shared images on Facebook is 1200 x 630 pixels - Instagram
The recommended size is of images for Instagram is a square 1080 x 1080 pixels.
It may be worth considering events that link with the exhibition, for example, a formal launch with an opening by the Mayor, and/or a brief introduction or lecture about the topic.
Demonstrating impact
If your exhibition is part of a grant-funded project, you may have a requirement to collect evidence to justify the use of external funding. Even if your exhibition is not grant-funded, it may still be useful to collect evidence of impact so that you can use this, if needed.
More formal evaluation can include the Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) and/or Generic Social Outcomes (GSOs) which were developed to provide practitioners, government and funders with a meaningful way of reporting on the impact of engagement with visitors to museums, libraries and archives. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/measuring-outcomes/generic-learning-outcomes
At the very least, try to capture comments from visitors and any engagements on social media.
The CILIP Marketing & Communications Group (formerly Publicity & Public Relations Group (PPRG)) has an annual Marketing Excellence Award. If your exhibition has met or exceeded your aims and objectives, and includes marketing approaches that you want to share with other organisations, it may be worth entering the annual awards.
Useful tips
- If your organisation needs to print large-format documents such as architects’ plans or maps, then it is worth finding out whether there is a large-format plotter within the organisation.
Depending on your setup, it may be possible to print directly to this if it is networked, or a colleague may be willing to send through prints on your behalf. Even if there is an internal recharge to your budget, this is likely to be significantly cheaper than using a commercial printer, and will give much more professional results than sticking multiple smaller sheets together. - Microsoft OneNote is usually included in the Microsoft Office software suite and seems to be a much overlooked and under-used programme. It is the electronic equivalent of a tabbed paper notebook and is very useful for gathering together ideas and drafting content. It may be a useful tool for collaboration, as a notebook can be shared with others.
- Consider learning to use graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop CC (or the more budget-friendly Adobe Photoshop Elements or Corel Paintshop Pro) or an open source free alternative such as GIMP. Even if you have no artistic or drawing skills, you can create professional-looking exhibitions using graphic design software.
- Bear in mind the diverse needs of customers when creating an exhibition – text size, colour, height of displays, language, physical accessibility – should all be considered with your potential audience in mind.
Suppliers
Got something to add?
Do you have any comments, suggestions or updates for this page? Add a comment below or contact us. This toolkit is only as good as you make it.
CILIP Local Studies Group 