MCN2015

Until recently a major challenge faced by many museums was getting their collection online. Now many collections are online, the next challenge is how to tell the stories behind the collection and deeply engage users (and occasionally curators!) This talk will share ten top tips for telling the tales behind your collection; unlocking the secrets in your archive and helping your users find content and keep them engaged long-term.

Tips will include:
- Ways to simply integrate your collection with your website content to create meaningful stories
- Techniques to engage your curators (without them even knowing about it!)
- How to give users what they actually want, not what you think they need.

The session will include examples from MoMA, National Portrait Gallery (London), Virginia Historical Society and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We will encourage delegates to share other examples in advance, developing an online resource that can be included as part of the session, adding to the resource throughout the conference. The resource will be shared with everyone in the MCN and wider museum communities. At the end of the session, delegates will have practical tools and techniques that they can use on their own projects, inspiration from others, and a pool of people with similar challenges to share experiences with.