The last in the series of thirteen MLA/UKOLN workshops on Web 2.0 and the social Web took place last week.

The UKOLN/MLA Web 2.0 Workshops

The workshops were funded by the MLA to enable museums, libraries and archives staff to get up to speed on the concepts behind Web 2.0, the challenges it presents and the opportunities it offers to cultural heritage organisations, including small organisations with limited budgets and technical expertise.

Thirteen

Thirteen workshops took place in venues all over England. An online map of the location of the workshop venues is available.

Links for the main page for each workshop are given below:

1. Preston Workshop (the Gujarat Centre) – 13th November 2009
2. Devizes Workshop (Wiltshire Heritage Museum) – 16th November 2009
3. London Workshop (Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London) – 3rd December 2009
4. Leeds Workshop (Leeds Discovery Centre) – 9th December 2009
5. Leicester Workshop (School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester) – 18th December 2009
6. Dulwich Workshop (Dulwich Picture Gallery) – Friday 29th January 2010
7. Newcastle Workshop (Discovery Museum) – Monday 8th February 2010
8. Chelmsford Workshop (Goldlay Gardens) – Wednesday 17th February 2010
9. Birmingham Workshop (Central Library) – Monday 22nd February 2010
10. Sheffield Workshop (Millennium Gallery) – Monday 1st March 2010
11. Bath Workshop (Kingston Room) – Monday 8th March 2010
12. Nottingham Workshop (E-Learning Centre) – Wednesday 17th March 2010
13. Cambridge Workshop (Central Library) – Monday 22nd March 2010

Thank you to all our host venues!

Two hundred and forty-two

242 delegates attended the workshops. The workshop programme included: presentations introducing and discussing Web 2.0/social Web, case studies from local practitioners, (if the venue allowed) a chance for delegates to try the tools out for themselves on laptops and PCs, an opportunity to discuss the issues and time for delegates to chat to their peers over a free lunch.

One hundred and twenty-seven

While the workshops were running we managed to take quite a few photos (127 in total) of the venue and delegates at work. These photos are now available on Flickr.

Why not have a look at the slideshow or the selection used in an Animoto slide video (now on YouTube).

Nineteen

We were lucky enough to have 19 case studies given by local practitioners during the workshop series. Most of their presentations are online and out there for you to use – have a look on the corresponding workshop page.

1. Preston – Web 2.0 at Huddersfield: Dave Pattern, University of Huddersfield Library
2. Devizes – Wiltshire Heritage Museum Case Study: Google Books, David Dawson, Wiltshire Heritage Museum
3. London – Museum of London Social Software, Bilkis Mosoddik, Museum of London
4. Leeds – Artspace and Artspace Online – Attempting to support users in the practical space with the virtual space, Dominique Attwood, ELearning Leeds Museums and Galleries
5. Leeds – Follow Alex – Facebook and engaging with young people about culture, Dominic Burton, Marketing Officer, Libraries, Arts and Heritage, Leeds City Council
6. Leicester – Using Social Networking on the Museum Studies distance learning course, Ross Parry, University of Leicester
7. Dulwich – Dulwich OnView Case Study: Ingrid Beazley, Steve Slack, Angie Macdonald, Yang-May Ooi, Dulwich OnView
8. Newcastle – Making Heritage More Engaging, Janet E Davis, Museum Consultant
9. Newcastle – Democracy, Jim Richardson, Sumo
10. Newcastle – Geek inside and BALTIC, David Coxon and Craig Astley, BALTIC
11. Chelmsford – The Essex experience, Janice Waugh, Essex Libraries
12. Birmingham – Birmingham Libraries 2.0, Jen Bakewell and Matthew Jelfs, Birmingham City Library
13. Sheffield – Web 2.0 at Sheffield Library, Karen Wallace Sheffield Library
14. Bath – Communicating with the Facebook generation, Nicola McNee, Librarian, Kingswood School
15. Bath – Me and my blogs, Ann Chapman, UKOLN
16. Bath – Twitter at Reading, Peter Barnes, Corporate Information Systems Group, University of Reading
17. Nottingham – Confessions and Lamentations: Social Web at the University of Leicester Library, Gareth Johnson, Document Supply & Leicester
18. Cambridge – The UL on Twitter, Emma Coonan, University of Cambridge
19. Cambridge – To ‘fb’…. or not to ‘fb’, Libby Tilley, University of Cambridge

Thank you to everyone who came and presented!

One hundred and ten…and counting

Over one hundred URLs have been bookmarked on Delicious that are relevant to the workshop subject area. More are being added by the day.

To support the workshops a number of complementary materials were created and utilised. All materials are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence. The workshop materials are available from the individual workshop pages.

Please do use the materials available with your teams and pass on details to any one interested.

Priceless

After the workshops had taken place we solicited feedback from delegates using a Google docs evaluation form. Thank you so much for your constructive comments, we really appreciate the positive feedback and did our best to take on board the suggestions made.

We hope we helped people feel positive in a practical way about what Web 2.0 can offer them. As one workshop delegate said:

“I was inspired and several days later am still excited about the web 2.0 possibilities opening up for my organisation. It was one of those training days where you reflect and say “that made a difference“.

We will be running a new series of workshops for the MLA on related areas.

Keep an eye on this blog, the Cultural Heritage events RSS feed and the Cultural Heritage Twitter feed for details.