At NZMS’s new premises in Christchurch, our team hosted the first-ever Canterbury region meetup for organisations with Recollect sites. It was a great turnout with attendees from Selwyn Libraries, Waimakariri Libraries, Lincoln University, Christchurch Boy’s High School, and Antarctic Heritage Trust. Those at the meetup shared their unique experiences of community engagement through Recollect; discussing how their sites increased the accessibility of their collections and generated user participation, such as contributions and geotagging. All agreed that while their Recollect sites are primarily used as historical repositories, it has also proven useful for their contemporary collecting efforts.
As the sole New Zealand reseller of Recollect, NZMS is happy that organisations are having success sharing their local history and building meaningful connections with their stakeholders. Our team was especially encouraged by each organisation’s use of Recollect to facilitate and promote the newly implemented Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum in schools. Many of the attendees talked about how a significant proportion of users searched for military history on their sites, e.g., users of Selwyn Stories frequently searched for “soldiers of Selwyn”, a topic that now has a dedicated collection page. This highlights Recollect’s potential use as a key reference for students hoping to discover and learn more about their local history.
Our team also provided a demonstration of two exciting new features that are set to be released by Recollect in 2023 – the Issue Desk and Exhibition modules. The Issue Desk module was originally developed to manage physical items being checked in and out of Tauranga City Libraries archival collections – but will now be rolled out to other Recollect sites as a key internal resource allowing staff to keep track of items, e.g., recording temporary access, loan status, and conservation activities. The Exhibition module will allow Recollect customers to develop presentations showcasing the different collections on their site. It is interactive, easy to design, and provides connections to external links and resources.
The attendees also requested more opportunities to share their experiences with others in the Recollect community. They want to discuss how they can make the most of their sites and even offer feedback about each other’s sites or collections before they are made public. This would enable the curation of better collection pages and ensure the development of useful connections for their site’s users.
Stephen Hardman, Southern Regional Manager of NZMS, explained that “the meetup revealed how each site positively engages their communities while also appealing to a wide range of people and ages: including school children, specialist researchers, genealogists, historians, and the general public. There was exciting discussion surrounding how libraries, and centres such as the Antarctic Heritage Trust, are actively engaging with schools to provide open access to important historical material related to the new curriculum – inspiring the next generation to discover Aotearoa’s rich cultural heritage”.
Do you want to increase community engagement with your collections? Contact our team today for more information about Recollect!