MCN2015

No, 1995 didn't just call and want its "digital future of the book" back. The term "enhanced publication" has never really shrugged off the stigma of the CD-ROM with a book's text paired with some videos and maybe a game or two. More recent attempts to create digital versions of print publications have been dismissed as not mobile enough, skeumorphic, whatevs. But what if the problem wasn't technology but the right institutional mindset? Any technology, applied with the right internal connections and external partnerships, can help a museum bridge old and new audiences and make its stories relevant now and in the future.

The Met's newest digital publication, an enhanced version of its still-popular quarterly print Bulletin, is more than just a print product crammed into a digital container. It represents a long effort to preserve the spirit of print but the connections of digital--connections to our audiences, our members, and between departments inside the institution. The two project leads will present the enhanced digital Bulletin as the visible tip of a framework of connection and partnership spanning the museum and its wide-ranging visitorship and membership as well as a gateway to link the print and digital products that our audiences want. Sometimes the best connections are already happening inside your building.