Multimedia presentation of the owners’ microstories
Published on 4 July 2016
Among new activities in the extension project is the preparation of twenty microstories of original owners. These will include both individual owners and institutions or societies. The materials on the original owners of dispossessed and confiscated books will be collected primarily in archive research. Our tasks include the research presentation. We shall publish an eBook containing complete texts of the microstories, and shortened texts will be gradually published on the website. Further, we made a commitment to prepare the microstories and publish them on the website in a more attractive (multimedia) form. The following text summarises the selected options offered by current technologies and the internet.
Video
The task of the researchers participating in the preparation of the microstories is to find in the archives pictorial documentation, photographs, or scans of interesting archival materials. One possible way to present the microstories is a video consisting of the available pictorial material, supplemented by narration. Since this is an international project, it shall be kept in mind that the multimedia microstories must also be prepared in English. Thus, the video will have to be provided with English subtitles. Although video may be a rather attractive form of presentation, it might be more difficult to make than other forms. Audio is not suitable in this case because it is difficult to transform into a foreign language.
Pictorial collage with captions
A simple and at the same time visually impressive form might be a pictorial collage with captions. The advantage of such a presentation is the fact that relations between individual photographs or the time sequence may be indicated; or important milestones in the history of a society or institution, or crucial moments in a person’s life, may be captured. This form has been used in multimedia articles by the New York Times.
Infographics
An increasingly popular form of presentation is infographics, because with a bit of imagination it may be used for almost every topic. Its great advantage is the fact that it may be used even in situations with not much original pictorial material. Just like a pictorial collage with captions, infographics will help us emphasise the most important points of a given topic. It briefly and clearly communicates information supported with visual material and bold colours, making it easier to remember. The following infographicsmay be given as an example. Furthermore, free web applications for creating infographics are available.
Photo-story
It is a well-known fact that a photograph is worth a thousand words. And if there is enough pictorial material, a photo-story – a series of several pictures supplemented by short captions – may be created. This form of presentation clearly emphasises the visual material, while textual information is short and illustrative only; thus it is necessary to fit the text correctly into a small space. The interactive articles section of the New York Times website contains photographs with texts which change when scrolled over with the mouse.
Slideshow
Just like the previous form of presentation, a slideshow allows pictorial material to be emphasised. The advantage of this form is the fact that the photograph itself does not get “contaminated” by the text, because the caption is placed next to the photograph. Moreover, the text may be a little more extensive than that for a photo-story. As with the other examples, this form of presentation is also used as a supplementto articles in the New York Times.
