Heather Marie Wells

In my last post I covered how Guided Access is being used to help us manage the iPads in our Reflection Areas. This time I want to share how Guided Access has worked on our iPod touches. The museum has 80 4th generation iPod Touches with our iOS app installed available for guests to check out. These are free thanks to the generous sponsorship of Cox Communications. After talking to colleagues at other institutions about their experiences, and trying out several alternatives, the decision was made to use iPod cases that do not cover the Home button. Even though covering the Home button could have helped control the devices, the benefits of allowing staff and knowledgeable users to easily service devices when needed seemed to outweigh the potential costs of leaving the Home button accessible. To conserve battery life and prevent new content from being installed on the iPods, we decided to use Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility to create a configuration profile to block access to ce...

Crystal Bridges opened to the public on November 11, 2011. Through our first year we have been using two kinds of Apple consumer products (iPod Touches and iPad) for different purposes, but both are set-up for public use. Instead of jailbreaking them to gain more control, the Museum made the decision to use the devices as they came from the manufacturer and only employ configuration profiles. We have three areas in our museum called Reflection Areas that are set-up with comfortable seating and collections of art, architecture, and nature books. Each of these areas also has two iPads running iBooks, the iOS ebook reader. The ebooks installed are a mix of internally-produced books about the museum and its collection and public domain books on art and nature. In order to help secure them and control access, the iPads are in enclosures that cover the home button. Despite the enclosures, on several occasions guests have used the sleep button to turn the devices off in order to exit the ...

Since changing jobs I've gotten behind on posting my presentation handouts and updating my CV.  So I've spent the evening updating my CV, my Linked In profile, my website, and my slideshare account.  I'm not finished yet, but I should be in the next few days. Whew, I do not recommend getting this far behind in keeping your online information current!

Several months before the museum opened, a number of staff members were asked to speak at a staff meeting about our belief in a great museum's power to transform individuals and communities. Because of the American Association of Museums recent advocacy efforts in DC, I felt compelled to go back and clean up the notes, which I had hastily written on short notice, and share my thoughts with more of my museum colleagues and friends. I hope that for some of you this will inspire you to include your voice and get involved. It's important that we all continue to work to save funding for museums. We believe in a great museum's power to transform individuals and communities. I feel like this statement is the story of my life. When I was growing up, my family was by no means what you might call "well off," so my parents were very careful about how they planned family vacations. We did not go to amusement parks and such, because they were just too expensive for a fa...

So much has been going on with me lately that I haven't had time to blog. I spent most of March getting three presentations ready for the Arkansas Museum Association Annual Meeting. Then at the end of the month I traveled to Jonesboro and gave my presentations. Based on the feedback they went really well. I was also elected to the AMA board as the representative for District 3. April was spent in research mode for the music exhibit that I'm in charge of, as well as catching up on reading AMA information and attending my first board meeting. May went in a flash. I narrowed down photos and audio excerpts from oral history interviews for the music exhibit and worked on a big project securing release forms for older interviews that the museum has. I also tallied the votes for the music exhibit. . .did I mention that we let the public vote on what artifacts we will use in the exhibit. And I attended my second AMA board meeting where we made a lot of progress on the profes...

So at New Year's I made the resolution to read all the books in my house that I've bought and just haven't got around to reading yet. I thought the number was 31, but then I went around my house and gathered them all up. The final count was 55! By January 18 I was down to 47. Mostly I was catching up on souvenir books I had bought on recent trips, but also finishing the multiple books I was trying to read at once. Then I started hitting some mysteries. Is there anything better than a good mystery? My love of mysteries started with the late, great Rex Stout, author of the beloved Nero Wolfe mysteries. Then my mother-in-law got me hooked on Janet Evanovich. I love her Stephanie Plum books the best. Then there were the Bed & Breakfast Mysteries of Mary Deheim. Then a friend got me hooked on the Heather Wells mysteries by Meg Cabot. Most recently my mother-in-law introduced me to the Callie Parrish mysteries by Fran Rizer. I'm not sure what I would do without a r...

Obviously, I did not blog every day I was on Jekyll Island. But I don't think I can be blamed. I was immersed for a week with 14 other fabulous museum professionals. Every day was filled with intense, but fun, brainstorming and learning. There were 16 sessions total. Covering everything from working with boards, strategic planning, fundraising, working with volunteers, exhibits, interpretation, disaster planning, collections planning, collections management, ethics, leadership styles, time management, PR and more. Frankly, after a day of classes I was too tired to blog about it once I got back to the hotel. So I'll just use this post to share the highlights. My favorite class was Public Relations and Marketing because I've never had much experience with it. The instructor was Lisa Littlefield from Oglethorpe University. If you ever have the chance to see her present, do it. She is so funny and personable. She really impressed me because she shared her success st...

This week I'm attending an 8 day museum management institute on Jekyll Island. Today was just the first day and although it was mainly welcome speeches and getting to know each other there was one session that was presented and I think it was a very interesting one. The session was on management and leadership. I think the thing the presenter hit on the most for me was the difference in what it means to be a manager and what it means to be a leader. It was very interesting to quickly learn the differences in the two types of work that both positions fill. He'll be continuing the discussion in a second session tomorrow, so I'll speak more on it later. Jekyll Island is beautiful and we were able to tour the historic district today. I highly encourage anyone to come out here if you ever get the chance. Georgia has laws that the island must remain 65% un-developed making it such a beautiful natural setting. Also every dollar spent on the island stays on the island and ...

Publishing info Title: The Twitter Book Author: Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein Publisher:O’Reilly ISBN: 9780596802813 Price: $19.99. US Subjects: Web/Internet Application Normally when I need to research a technology topic for a presentation or an article, I like to scour the Internet for my references and examples. I’ve always felt that I would be able to get the most up-to-date information that way. It just seems like published tech books would be too out-dated too quickly. Recently I was supposed to facilitate a workshop on Social Media in Museums for the Arkansas Museum Association (it had to be canceled and we are working on rescheduling). Due to other work projects, I knew I wouldn’t have the time to search the Internet and figure out which references were reputable and which weren’t. I particularly needed to research Twitter since it was the newest (and hottest) of the social media apps, and although I use Twitter personally and professionally, I also realize I’m not an advance...

Note: This is the second half of an article that I wrote published in the HHMAG RAG, Historic House Affinity Group Newsletter Volume 9, Issue 2, August 2009, pg. 7 although I have made updates to it. Last week I discussed two social media platforms that I think Historic House Museums can use to help the public connect on a more personal level to the home and how to get started with them. Today I want to get down to the more nitty gritty ideas of content. Suggested Content Now that you know the basics and have tips to get started, let’s get to the heart of the matter. What can Historic Houses do with these media to make the house more like a home? If you have diaries from the people who lived in your historic home, consider blogging their diary. Consider the journal postings on pepysdiary.com and orwelldiaries.wordpress.com . I personally would love to read a blog entry where there is a picture of something in the house accompanied by diary excerpts about the object, perhaps abo...

Note: This is the first half of an article that I wrote published in the HHMAG RAG, Historic House Affinity Group Newsletter Volume 9, Issue 2, August 2009, pg. 7 although I have made updates to it. I love going to historic house museums. My favorite ones are those that make me feel like I’ ve been transported back in time. I love it when I feel like I’m a guest being invited into someone's home for a visit. Take a moment to consider that statement. Notice the words I used: guest, invited, home, and visit. Historic House Museums have an opportunity to shine above other institutions like science centers and nature museums by conveying intimacy and being personal. Unfortunately, Historic House Museums aren ’t always the best at conveying these characteristics through their online presence. However, I feel that the new wave of social media and networking sites can really help historic house museums to make those personal connections. There are a number of sites out there, and ...

Last Friday my day started out unlike any other: I was up at 5:00 am. For those who know me well, they understand that this is nothing short of a miracle. I'm more a night person than a morning person, but that day I had somewhere special to be. I had been invited to a sneak peak of a new James Turrell skyspace at Crystal Bridges. I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't really understood any of the literature I read about what a skyspace is. When I asked around, no one could adequately explain to me what it was. They would try a few words and then just get lost in their thoughts. At this point the responses all became the same: “Just go, it will be like no other experience you've ever had.” I'll try to explain the experience, but like so many before me, I'm sure my words will clumsily convey the event. First let me describe the structure. From the walking trail you can see the native Winslow/Fayetteville stones that cover the outside. The circular structure s...

Recently there was an interesting discussion on the Museum-L listserv about email marketing and if it can become spam. Several people said it wasn't because you opt-in to these mailing lists. I thought I would share my responses here too. I have to say I have felt spammed by email lists I have opted into before. It is a slippery slope and I think businesses need to be considerate when using contact information given to them. Here are some of my guidelines. 1. Have clear opt out instructions (I also appreciate the chance to tell you why I'm opting out. Do I think you abused my email or had I just joined for the past six months because I was getting ready to take my vacation there and I wanted to do research). Also when I opt out honor that. Don't stop sending me emails for a month or so and then start up again. 2. If possible have opt out options for specific topics or events (if I have a conflict and know I can't go to your event I appreciate not hearing more about i...

Title: Listen Up! : Podcasting for Schools and Libraries Author: Linda W. Braun Publisher: Information Today, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-57387-304-8 Price: $29.50 US Subjects: Internet in education; Libraries and the Internet; and Podcasting When I learned that Leo Laporte ( TWiT ) had done the forward to this book I figured it was a pretty safe bet that it would be a stellar reference for podcasting and I was right. Linda W. Braun set out to create a book that would explain podcasting to schools and libraries without the necessity of a lot of technical knowledge and I think she has achieved this goal marvelously. The book is broken into six chapters: This Thing We Call Podcasting; Before You Get Started; Real Life Examples; What Makes a Great Podcast: Developing the Content; What Makes a Great Podcast: the Technology; and Get the Word Out. The table of contents breaks the chapters down further into subtitles and sidebars making it easy to find the section you want at a glance. Each section...

I recently got to go to the Educators' Technology Conference . It was actually organized by teachers for teachers so some people wonder why I went. Well in my opinion it is important for museum professionals who are planning on using technology in their museum to know what technology is being used in schools so you know if what you are creating is compatible. It was very enlightening. It was fabulous, but not surprising, to learn that teachers are looking for educational content online for use in the classroom. Their looking for audio, video, worksheets, presentations, in short anything to aid them in teaching their students. The disappointing revaluation is that they often don't know where to look or they are blocked from going to the sites they know about. There was much discussion about the websites teachertube.com and schooltube.com , two fabulous sites dedicated to offering a place to find safe content for educational purposes. I was shocked to find out that many ...

I'm often asked to review books on tech topics and I'm finally getting some time to work on it. Currently, I'm looking at a couple of books on podcasting, because I'm pretty knowledgeable on the topic and I think it will be easy to decide if a book is helpful on that topic. However, I would love some suggestions on books that you think need to be reviewed. I've also been asked to write an article on podcasting for a Botanical Garden publication. I'm pretty excited about that as I love the outdoors and gardens, but I don't often get to do a lot of work with them. I've also started diligently working on an exhibit that I've been put in charge of to open in 2010. My plan is for it to be our first publicly curated exhibit and we will have the public vote on what artifacts will actually be included in the exhibit.

I have a presentation that I've done a couple of times that exams low-cost technology that can be used for museum applications. At the moment I'm spending some time looking at some new apps to add to the list. On the list are two video editing programs and two photo editing programs. What I'm most excited about is a simple little app called Readability . It's a bookmarklet that let's you decide how you want to view a webpage in order to read it (and print it if you like). When I demoed the Firefox plugin Nuke Anything, there was much rejoicing. User could delete annoying flashing ads and happily print their content without the ads wasting toner. But you had to do it one ad at a time. Now some of you might be thinking who worries about wasting toner. But when you are in the non-profit world, especially during a recession, you are always looking for a way to eke out every penny's worth. Well Readability is ten times better. It gets rid of everything at once an...

The museum world is in mourning. Today a man walk through the doors of the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and shot a guard. Guards had to return fire for the safety of the visitors at the museum, including a group of 165 eighth graders there on a field trip. The guard, Stephen T. Johns, subsequently died at the hospital. The Holocaust Museum will be closed tomorrow and flags will be flown at half mast in his honor. I've been to DC twice and of course my favorite place is the mall. So many fabulous museums in such close proximity. My most recent trip to DC was last August. It was a wonderful trip and the first time my husband had been. On our last day in DC we stopped to get frozen lemonades after we had finally been asked to leave the Natural History Museum because it was closing time. It was such a lovely evening to be sitting on a bench at the Mall watching the sun set after a hot August day. We watched some guys playing football and there were little girls turning c...

One of the things I love the most about my job is the unexpected things I need to do for my job. Tomorrow my parents are coming to visit me because it's my birthday. While they are here I need to get my dad to teach me how to square dance and call so I can then teach our education staff for the camps that we are having this summer. How many people get to say, "yeah, I need to learn to square dance for my job"?

My current projects are many and varied. For the museum I'm currently cataloging and organizing a very large manuscript collection of papers from the International Order of Odd Fellows. I'm also trying to catch-up on editing some podcast episodes and planning an exhibit that will open in 2010. I'm in the process of writing an article for the Historic House Museum Affinity Group newsletter and I'm putting together a workshop on social media for the Arkansas Museum Association. On the personal front I'm currently working on creating a portfolio.