Here are some examples of different approaches to presenting your digital archive online, ranging from low-cost and simple, to options requiring more resource and expertise. If you have an example to share here, particularly if you have used elements from the DIY kit, then please get in touch via the link in the menu-line above.
Pilot for a digital archive for York’s Historic Music Venues
This was a straightforward option: a PowerPoint slide deck was created and then converted into a pdf. Links could be added to external sites for further enrichment.
Pilot for the Willow Community Project archive
Here we used Padlet, a low-cost and easily accessible platform, and built a presentation of material from the archive around a timeline. Padlet offers the added advantage of viewers being able to ‘like’ and comment on items, adding their own memories to the archive.
York’s Historic Music Venues Walking Trail
This interactive PDF slideshow (again assembled initially in Powerpoint) allows the viewer to interact with the trail content while walking between physical locations. The slides can contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements, and navigation buttons or hyperlinks can be used to move between slides or access additional information.
The Willow Nightclub: Echoes and Memories in Virtual Reality
The Willow Nightclub, which was located on York’s Coney Street, closed down in 2015. A renovation programme for its first-floor premises was begun but abandoned during the pandemic and the site cannot be opened to the public for safety reasons. The current owners were willing to allow us into the building to film, however, and our 360-degree footage was edited into a VR experience that can be accessed on a VR headset or via phone, tablet and computer (using the mouse or touchpad to navigate around the virtual space). This is work in progress: text and images will soon be added to help us tell the story of the venue virtually, and bring its past existence into visual juxtaposition with its inaccessible present.
Click here for the latest view and explore (onscreen)!