15 November 2020

Circumstances Shape Change in Some BDC Services and Programs

Being a librarian and archivist places my work activities well within the GLAM field, short for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. Among the several e-newsletters, blogs and listservs that I subscribe to is Colleen Dilenschneider's "Know Your Bone" blog in which she researches topics and preferences regarding cultural heritage experiences.  A recent article examines the amount of time that the GLAM community's usual visitors now spend online - and the implications for our community. 

It's a lot ... and growing, not only because of COVID-19 mitigation efforts but as part of a decade long trend more people have adopted towards staying home on the weekend and the advent of widespread streaming capabilities on the technology front. When one thinks about it, the Great Recession did keep a lot of us at home and more focused on making home more comfortable. Implication of the research? It may be harder than ever to attract the folks who attended history-related and arts-related in person events before March 2020 back to in-person programs and exhibits in 2021 and likely into 2022.

-- Which is why the Beaufort County Historical Society and the BDC decided to give local history programming online a try. Our first attempt was Suzie Parker Devoe's presentation about the "Women of Reconstruction." There's still time for you to watch it on the Library's YouTube Channel  https://youtu.be/wmsvv0r3Mlc before it goes away on Tuesday night. Initial reactions were so positive that we already have a date for filming the next lecture in the series.  Dr. Brent Morris will be the presenter for the second lecture. 

 
Given the need to limit access to the Research Room because of staff shortages and the small size of the physical space in this time of COVID-19, I have tried to extend the BDC's online offerings in other ways as well. For example, I'm working with Jan Beaudrie of the County Channel on some more "Beaufort County Moment" videos; there are new topics featured in the BDC's WordPress blog; two docents are working to prepare items in our archives for eventual digitization; and I'm doing my best to create interesting social media posts on a regular and recurrent basis at a level 10 - 25% higher than before COVID-19. 

Looking ahead: The Library will be closed Thursday, November 26th and Friday, November 27th for the Thanksgiving holidays.

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