This webinar talked about three of our PastView publishing features:

• BookExplorer
• Object Viewer
• Timelines

As well as the way in which items and entities are presented, determined by their file format type.

We looked at how these features help to enhance your visitor’s experience, offering a wide variety of new and exciting ways to engage your audiences and, consequently, elevate your collections.

We were also joined by Lucy Bonner, Archivist at IMechE, who shared her experiences of implementing Object Viewer into the IMechE collection. We were pleased to hear that she found this to be a really straightforward task. So straightforward, in fact, that she thought she must have “missed a step!” But, no, we can confirm that IMechE’s objects were set up perfectly and the wonderful results can be seen for yourselves right here.

Lucy highlighted the main benefits of Object Viewer as:

Ease of Implementation - Lucy explained that this was a simple case of taking a series of photographs from around the object and then uploading them as a collection.

Improved accessibility - Lucy explained that, like everyone else, accessibility to their archives had been hindered by the events brought about by the pandemic but Object Viewer elevated the socially distanced online experience for their visitors.

Exceeding accessibility - Lucy also talked about how Object Viewer was not only providing access which was comparative to the physical experience, but it was actually exceeding the physical in some instances. She explained that, even with the physical there are barriers and boundaries as to what can be achieved. Objects stored in a cabinet or against a wall cannot be enjoyed in their entirety. Where an object cannot be picked up and handled there will be angles and positions that are hidden, unable to be explored. Object Viewer removes these barriers, to enhance the visitor experience.

Visitor satisfaction - And finally, Lucy was happy to confirm that, since implementation, they have received some great responses and feedback from visitors viewing their objects online. 

And there was more…

Casper Smithson went on to demonstrate the shared PastView Playground, as before, demonstrating how you can experiment with these chosen features and the particular functions they have to offer. You can access this area by following the link here. Again, be aware that this area can be seen by anyone who is signed up and logged in, so take care when adding and sharing content.

Should you have any queries or questions at all, please get in touch.