Recently, Wilson Library launched a library-wide Tumblr. According to Emily Jack, the digital projects and outreach librarian of the North Carolina Collection Gallery, students that visit the library casually are interested in following the collections -- ALL of them. The problem has been that while each collection has its own blog, there has not been one medium to promote all of the collections at once. Tumblr has been the solution. Not only does it encompass all of Wilson Library's collections, but it is also highly visual. The visual attractiveness of the tumblr is one way to appeal to an audience beyond archivists and traditional archives researchers.
So, what are specific initiatives that can make the archives be perceived as fun? Now, I do not want to promote the idea that the role of any archival repository is purely recreational. However, archives ARE fun to those of us who work in them. How many times do we call to our coworkers or our office mates with a "Hey, look at this!" or "Can you believe it?" or "How crazy!" We legitimately enjoy our work, so why shouldn't we share that with everyone else?
One way we've begun to make the archives fun at UNC's University Archives is through our Caption This! Caption Contest. Our first photo garnered 8 responses in the comments section. After we receive the comments, we held a vote (via poll daddy) for the the best caption. Once a week or so had passed, we created a new version of the photo (with the winning caption featured in a thought bubble) and posted it on our blog; we also emailed the contributor of the winning caption. We have since posted a second picture which has already gotten several hilarious responses!
By advertising the contest as a continuing series on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and the blog, I hope that we can make University Archives more appealing to university students as a fun (and educational) part of the Carolina Experience.
What have you and your coworkers done to make the archives fun? Do you think that we should make our repositories "entertaining"?