My slides from the MCN 2013 conference panel, "Print Meet Digital: Digital Meet Print: A Matchmaking." I provided a perspective on museum publishing from the point of view of some from a print-book environment.

1. Print Meet Digital, Digital Meet Print:
A Matchmaking
A Print Publishing Perspective

2. Is this a “print technologist”?

3. Print may
have had a
particular
view of the
museum
publishing
world …
Print Publisher
“death
of print”
Google glass
people loaded into
software
“ b e y o n d h e r e b e m o n s t e r s ”
mobile web
conv ers ion
“what’s a CMS again?
d
not-­‐so-­‐mobile web
medialabs,
hackathons
i
g
enhanced thingies
i
t
a
l
metadata
r
i
v
e
r
GOOGLE
POD
PDFs
apps
ebooks, epub, estuff
website
Amazon
email
great big piles of
big, fat books

4. Which led to a bad reputation
for Print …
❡ Slow to react to changing publishing industry
❡ Slow to bring publications to market
❡ Slow to encourage curators to adapt to changing
audience behaviors
❡ Slow to embrace new technologies
❡ Slow to update workflows to inculcate digital content
preparation into Print
❡ Slow to … well, just slow

5. Print realities #1:
curatorial vision, dual mission
“What we need to correct are the
incorrectnesses.”
--A curator, when asked why we needed
another round of proofreading on their book
(on month 17 of this project)

6. Print realities #2: Print works
“[W]e’re spending an incredible amount of effort trying
to recreate the print experience online. And I think
that’s a terrible mistake. Print books are a very mature
tech. They don’t require a lot of power. They’re very
durable. They’re easy to access. And we all understand
how they work.”
--Ed Finn, Director of Arizona State University’s
Center for Science and the Imagination, at the Frankfurt Book Fair

7. Print realities #3: Print IS digital
❡ The only thing analog about Print is the final
book (ok, besides the piles of hard copy marked
up with red pencils … ).
❡ Digital technologies are used in all stages of
production, from editing to archiving.
❡ Lack of cross-functionality with Digital is as
much a result of unplanned content growth
across the institution as it is a departmental
directives.

8. Print Publishing at the Met
❡ Modern Editorial Department began in 1964.
❡ Staff of 25 full-time editors, production, photo
researchers, admin, complemented by twice that number
of freelancers
❡ 25 titles per year: exhibition catalogues, collection
catalogues, quarterly bulletin, scholarly journal
❡ Solid sales in niche art-book market
❡ Continued strong buy-in from curators
❡ Institutional support for and dedication to role for print
in museum’s mission and the curatorial vision

9. The value of Print
❡ Thorough editorial development
❡ Experience with scholarship and apparatus
❡ Exhaustive (CMYK) color-correction of images
❡ Longtime relationships with rights holders
❡ Usefulness proven by the increasing number of departments I
send our files to after publication
How do we leverage these strengths into the
digital experience?

10. Print and Digital: a comparison
Print
Digital
Speed
Slow, measured in months or Fast, measured in weeks or
years
months
Stages
Proofs and pages, very
deliberate progress
Iterative, agile
Format
Well-established, based on
page concept
Often TBD, moving away from
the page concept
New
technologies
Slow to embrace because of
complexity of workflow
Quick to embrace, the two are
intimately tied together
“Scholarly
Time”
Frozen at moment of printing Can be dynamic, involve
feedback from audience

11. Print meets Digital at the Met:
MetPublications

12. Preserving Print …

13. While linking to Digital resources

14. MetPublications by the numbers
From launch (10/10/12– 9/20/13):
Visits: 687,782
Average Visits/Month: 62,526
Average Unique Visits/Month: 35,678
Total Book Views on Google: 881,643
Total Page Views on Google: 14,978,556
Contains entries for 900 print publications since 1964.
While PDFs are available, it’s the searchable online pages and the
portal into the Met’s digital offerings that people want.
Small print-on-demand program continues curatorial buy-in.

15. Print, Digital, and MetPublications
Editorial
Digital Media (Online
Publications group)
Speed
Fast scanning, conversion,
approval process
Labor-intensive tagging and
linking to existing online
content
Stages
Followed Digital’s lead on
workflow
Iterative design concepts
though uploads to system
architecture could be slow
Format
Was open to format
designed by Digital Media
Strong belief in requirements
meant format rather fixed
New
technologies
Got used to new workflows
Had to work with existing
architecture, technologies
“Scholarly
Time”
Newer books in MetPubs can Not dynamically updated
get reprinted if demand

16. The next connection: Guide to the Met
❡ Original print version, early 2012
❡ On MetPublications, fall 2012
❡ Six translated print editions, late
2012 (also on MetPubs)
❡ Four more translated print editions,
spring 2014
❡ Expansive online feature based on
print edition planned for 2014
❡ ePub or other device-based version,
led by Editorial, planned for 2014
ISBN 978-1-58839-510-8
           
大
都
会
艺
术
博
物
馆
指
南
Chinese
中文
大都会艺术博物馆
指南
Chinese / 中 文

17. More than just print or digital:
a “content mandala” of the Met
THE AUDIENCE MAKES CONTENT
“It ’s Time We Met ”
“Hack the Met ” (unofficial tours)
Comments
Social Media
Actually
Visiting
the
Building
Making
3D
copies of art
Drawing in
the galleries
Volunteering
Instagram/Flickr
Blog posts
EXTERNAL/VENDORS
bucket lists
digitization
lectures
eBook conversions
Met
Publications
Apps
82nd and
Fifth
Longform
Bulletins
Scholarly
Journal
restaurants
Adobe
DPS
INTERNAL
Editorial
Spectrum
XML-based workflows
Exhibitions
Design
TMS
Libraries
Joint projects
CONTENT
STREAM
Collections
Hackathons
Website
Research
Database
Connections
Blog
Concerts
Lectures
Books
MetSelects
Social Media
INTERNAL
print on demand
Timeline of
Art History
Online Publications
Audio tours
Merchandise
Aritst in Residence
“Talking
back
to the
books”
Yelp, Trip
Advisor, etc.
Making their
own books?
EXTERNAL/VENDORS
Exhibitions
Pintarest
THE AUDIENCE MAKES CONTENT
CONTENT
STREAM
Collections

18. Or how about a “content grid”?
PHYSICAL
Signage and
Visitor Services
Exhibition Design
I
N
T
E
R
N
A
L
DAM
Libraries
Hack-a-Thons
Content
Planning
Books
Gallery Talks
Restaurants
Artist in
Residence
Signage and
Visitor Services
Pre-visit
Planning
File servers
XML/CMS
Collections
MetPublications
Research Database
Audio Guide
Timeline of Art History
Connections
TMS
82nd and Fifth
Website
Social media
Sharepoint Servers
VIRTUAL
ebooks
E
X
T
E
R
N
A
L

19. What Print can learn from Digital
❡ Better sales, marketing, research, analytics
❡ Better “agility” in workflow
❡ Better content management
❡ Post-publication involvement with authors and audience
❡ Finding the next great art publishing format …

20. What Digital can learn from Print
❡ Longer engagement (“slow cooking”) for “artisanal
content,” for both text and images
❡ Improving parallel workflows
❡ Familiarity with thorough research techniques for
scholarly apparatus
❡ A history of experimenting with “a very mature
technology”
❡ Long history of dealing with rightsholders

21. A final view of internal, external,
and audience relationships
VISITOR
EXPERIENCE
RESEARCH
DATABASES
CMS
?
EXPORTREADY
CONTENT
UX
PUBLISHING

22. Or is it?
Print and Digital now serve Visitor Experience
VISITOR
EXPERIENCE
UX
RESEARCH
DATABASES
CMS
EXPORTREADY
CONTENT
PUBLISHING

23. Moving forward:
Print and Digital
❡ See Museum as a single publishing entity
❡ See print readers as users of content, too
❡ Analyze context of print
❡ Coordinate content streams as early as possible to
allow for best slow and fast workflows side by side
❡ It’s not just a good CMS … institutional willingness
to mix Print and Digital is a matter of willpower and
priorities, not just tech

24. Ideas for integrating Print into
the future of museum content
❡ Discussion of best practices for most sensible use of content
developed for print in other contexts and containers
❡ Workshop for improving internal content flows within the
institution
❡ Hack-a-thon/lab for producing different kinds of content,
including print (looking beyond the traditional catalogue)
❡ Encourage cross-pollination of Print and Digital workflows,
timeframes, and mindsets …
Print publishers are standing by … whether we know it or not …

25. Thank you MCN!
My contact information
Robert Weisberg
Senior Project Manager
Editorial Department
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028-0198
212-650-2398
Email: Robert.Weisberg@metmuseum.org
Twitter: @beyondDTP
Blogging at Beyond the Printed Page: digitalpublishingbliki.com