Getting to grips with the heritage trail

 iMuse in Reading is creating a small exhibition to accompany The Friends' London Road Campus Heritage Trail (Sunday 25 March 2012 - all welcome). After a morning going through the photos we already have from The Friends' and Women's Club previous mini exhibitions plus those in the UMASCS (University Museum and Archives and Special Collections Services) archive at the Museum, we had to check out where a couple of them were actually taken

(original (c) University of Reading)

Here the correct lodge is pinned down through its unusual decoration. Another photo, claimed to be from Shinfield on an official University postcard (not the Museum's fault!), was found to come from the old Dairy immediately outside the Museum building itself. Verified by counting bricks and position of drainpipes. A good mark for iMuse's heritage sleuthing if not a very glamorous task.

Now we have to decide how to display - on separate exhibition boards and/or overlaid on the diagram of the new use for the site and/or on a diagram of the old site layout and/or via Flickr, Pinterest, Tumblr, Historypin. How best to arrange for display on iPads or visitors' phones? How much text/audio to add? Should we trial doing 'proper' audio descriptions? How to keep the photos for another time?

What will work best in the reception area for the Sunday event? Will the University Court the next day be in the same place? How can we support the lightweight, cardboard display as the walls aren't totally flat (there's a piece of panelling on one, window halfway up on the other).

For an IT based programme, iMuse people are spending a lot of time with double-sided sticky-tape and paper...here printing out the basic photos for the exhibition... and it went 3D when the iMuse trolley was delivered - flatpacked.

Next week we'll get back to digital....

How many women does it take to assemble a flatpack? It was the third one who cracked and asked a man for a set of screwdrivers...