∴ Meg Dolan ∴

Our brief from the NLS states, “When we put books in cases, we are changing them from literature into exhibit, and in doing so saying something additional to the content of the item itself.”  However, in a simple traditional book display, the viewer is allowed access to only one spread – two pages of information from which to interpret the entire book.  In light of this, I want to consider the following question: can digital display help solve the problems traditionally associated with the display of books? In order to explore two avenues of answers to the above question, I will separate books into two categories: significant books (valued primarily for their contents), and beautiful books (valued primarily for their visual properties), and look at digital display in conjunction with an example of each type. While these are not mutually exclusive classifications, most books will fall more heavily into one category or the other. Loxley et al., state that “an emphasis on showing beautifu

(1) Identify your key responsibilities and list the main areas of work you have been involved in. Briefly highlight the skills and competencies that are relevant to this project/work area. At the onset of this project it was my job to be the communicator with all contacts aside from Sheena.  We chose to do this on the advice of Shona Thomson, who recommended it as a way to maintain clarity.  However, as we moved into Semester 2 the volume of communications grew exponentially, and each of us took on communicating with our own relevant contacts.  This required the ability to remember the new contacts we were making weekly at the Library, and to gather and distill information back and forth for my group. It also required the ability to know when to redistribute this work load to avoid oversaturation. I was responsible for coordinating the Conversation Corner, a role which consisted of identification of and communication with suitable and diverse participants, and scheduling and drawing-up

In my entry of December 22 nd , I mentioned that we were planning to use a large x-shaped Octanorm structure in our exhibition.  In January, we received a list of the Library’s available Octanorm pieces, and owing to a lack of compatible parts with our initial design, had to re-design to a t-shaped structure. Due to a lack of communication from the Library’s usual Octanorm printer/assembler, we confirmed two other suppliers in late January: Mackinnon Slater for printing, and Old School Fabrications for assembly. Wednesday the 26th, 8 days before opening, we received an email from Scott at Old School Fabrications saying the pieces on the Library’s Octanorm parts list were not compatible with our design.  We calculated that we had about £1300 to spare in the budget to put towards fixing the situation, and I undertook the coordination of that. I first attempted to rent additional Octanorm pieces from a company, who instead offered to fully reprint and assemble on a non-Octanorm system for