Do you have hidden gems in your library collections that you would like to highlight by developing immersive VR experiences? On this show Beryl White-Bing, Virtual Learning Librarian at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library at the University of North Florida, and Trina McCowan, Director of Library Services for the Proctor Library at Flagler College, share valuable information about how they went about featuring the life and work of Eartha M.M. White through an immersive online experience. It’s an inspiring story that can help us all bring to life treasured stories from our collections.
Transcript
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Adriane Herrick Juarez:
This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. You’re listening to Library Leadership Podcast, where we talk about libraries and leadership, and speak with guests who share their ideas, innovations, and strategic insights in the profession.
Do you have hidden gems in your library collections that you would like to highlight by developing immersive online experiences? On this show, Beryl White-Bing, Virtual Learning Librarian at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library at the University of North Florida, and Trina McCowan, Director of Library Services for the Proctor Library at Flagler College, share valuable information about how they went about featuring the life and work of Eartha M.M. White through an immersive online experience. It’s an inspiring story that can help all of us bring to life treasured stories from our collections.
Enjoy the show!
Beryl and Trina, welcome to the show!
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #1: Today we are discussing developing immersive experiences from library collections. As we start, will you share the innovative project you implemented at the University of North Florida Library to create an immersive virtual reality experience from archival materials, Beryl? 01:42
Beryl White-Bing:
We have the collection of Eartha M.M. White, who was a Northeast Florida native. She created so many things here in Northeast Florida for the African American community. She ran many businesses. She helped homeless people. She helped orphans. She ran a laundromat. She had a nursing home. She had an orphanage. She just ran a lot of different businesses here. She was a single woman who was—she died in 1974. The college got all of her papers and things that were left, so they created a special collection here in the library of all of her papers and her mission. Many of the things that she initiated are still in existence today.
You know how at Thanksgiving, everybody goes to serve people who are less fortunate? That is the Clara White Mission. That’s Eartha White’s mother, Clara White was Eartha White’s mother, and they started that mission together. She is a woman who is near and dear to the hearts of people in Northeast Florida.
We created the experience when I started here at University of North Florida—because I’m the virtual learning librarian and I run the VR lab here in the library, I was challenged with a question in my interview, How can you help me in special collections? That was Susan Swiatosz asking me that question in my interview. Of course I created an answer, but it was always in the back of my mind.
I saw a webinar with Jasmine Clark, who is developing the virtual blocks. It’s a VR experience that she’s targeting towards high school students about a collection that she had at the college she was working at, and it just sparked an interest. I went downstairs and I talked to Susan and asked her what collections they have? She mentioned Eartha White was one of the collections that they really get a lot of traction out of—people from all around the world are studying Miss White.
After I saw the webinar with Jasmine Clark, I contacted her and I asked her about the project and how she did it. She sent me all of her information, everything. She was very nice. She sent me everything that they were trying to do—she’d been working on it for like two years. She had a huge budget. They were trying to do a game.
Well, we have an organization here called the Northeast Florida Library Information Network, and they offer an innovative project award every year. After I talked to Susan, and I saw what Jasmine was doing, I thought, I think I can do that.[laughter] So, I made a decision to apply for the grant to get the money to buy the equipment that I might need to create it, and we got it. Then we had to sit down and think, How do we do this? [laughter] That’s how we came up with our plan to create the experience.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #2: You recruited others to help with this work. Will you share about that? 06:18
Trina McCowan:
One of the things—we had the benefit of being faculty librarian liaisons to some of our new faculty, and we got to meet all of our new faculty at a breakfast when they started. One of those new faculty members was Dr. Kevin Pfeil. His speciality is VR. So it was like, Oh, do you want to immediately start working on your portfolio? We know something you can do. It’s fortuitous.
Beryl White-Bing:
Kevin always says yes to me—I don’t know, he is such a wonderful person. So, we set up a meeting with Susan, who was the head of special collections, and Kevin and I. We sat down and we talked about the fact—I told him what I wanted to do, that I wanted to create this virtual reality experience about Miss White’s life. I didn’t really want it to be a game. I wanted it to be more of a biography and something that you could walk through. Because we have several VR experiences that are based on different aspects of history, I wanted it to be like that.
We have the Anne Frank House, which was a tour of the Anne Frank house in VR, and then the People’s House is another VR experience, a tour of the White House. Then there’s another VR experience. What’s the name of it? The Book of Distance—a story of a man’s life who came from Japan during World War II to live in Canada. Those three experiences have different aspects of them that inspired me as to how I wanted the VR experience to go. I asked Kevin if he could do it, and he said yes. All we needed was equipment that we could capture an area where Miss White lived.
Because I didn’t know whether she had family, we got in contact with the Eartha White Museum—which I didn’t even know was in existence, but Susan did, and asked them if they would be interested. Because they get a lot of requests for the Eartha White collection, they came out to do a consultation with Susan. Where Miss White has the missio—she lived above that. They have a museum above where the mission is.
They came. I let them put on a headset and experience those experiences that I was talking about—The White House, Anne Frank House, and The Book of Distance. I told them what my ideas were and they were full in. They opened up the museum to us, and all we needed to do was get the equipment that we would need to scan the place—the museum, because that’s actually where Miss White lived.
Once we got the grant from the Innovative Project Award from NEFLIN, we were able to purchase, or have purchased for us, a Matterport 3D camera, and we got some more scanning equipment—Meta Quest 2 to store the experience on. We made an appointment with the museum, went down. We were able to scan all of the rooms of the museum—we used her office, her bedroom. She had a little sitting area where she played music. There is a parlor, her dining room, everything. It just just tells the story of her life. After we got all the scans together, we sat down and did a storyboard as to how we were going to do it. Everyone got assigned a certain task and we needed a narrator, [laughter] and that’s where Trina comes in. Trina at the time was the assistant librarian here at the University of North Florida, and she has a very clear voice, as you can see.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #3: Trina, what a lovely contribution of your voice to this project. How did you get involved? 11:25
Trina McCowan:
I guess I thought of myself as the target audience. I’ve been in Jacksonville since I was three, in Duval County schools—full time. I had no clue about Earth White. I knew the Clara White Mission was a thing, but that history wasn’t something that we were taught in school. I was just fascinated. I was like, Of course I want to be a part of this project, and I’m really honored. Beryl is a drill sergeant when it comes to voice over. [laughter] I learned a lot about elocution. It was a good experience, and it gave me tools and ideas to take you to the next place.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #4: That’s wonderful. Beryl, once you had Trina in place, what was the formula for the project from there? 12:21
Beryl White-Bing:
Susan wrote the script. Trina recorded the script. We had all of the scans of the place and we had a storyboard of how we wanted it done—like an introduction. I call it a formula. We had an introduction, then we wanted them to go to the reading room and special collections, like they’re there for a research appointment. Then we have four folders on the table, and they’re able to interact with each folder. Each folder takes them into a different room in the museum.
Once you go into the museum, then you hear Trina again telling you a narration about her business dealings when you’re in her office, her personal life when you’re in her bedroom, and all of her accolades and all of her civic activities when you’re in the parlor, which is where you see all of her awards and, honorariums, and honorary degrees. There’s a nursing home chair there where you can hear information about her work with the infirm and children, pictures of the children at the beach. She used to take the children to the beach and different things like that.
She was an amazing woman and she was very short. She was only less than five feet tall. A single black woman that was born in the late 1800s, I mean…she did a tremendous amount. She went to the March on Washington. She dealt with the governor, the mayor, the president—the president. She has been all over this country, and she was an opera singer. She was amazing. She was amazing.
I’ve been in Jacksonville over forty years and never put the Eartha White Nursing Home together with the Clara White Mission. I just didn’t know. So, I think it’s important, and I believe cultural preservation in VR is a thing. Once you put pictures and video in front of a person’s face and they’re immersed in the information, it can’t be denied. And I think that is very, very important in this day and age. Plus, we live in Florida. I’ll just put it like that. [laughter]
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #5: That’s marvelous. Her life is an example for us all, making it so important that you developed this immersive experience from her collections and experiences. How did you create a plan to do this? 15:21
Beryl White-Bing:
Well, it just takes a willingness to talk to people. We in Libraryland, are pretty much introverted. But you have to have a willingness to talk to people. I mean, I spoke with Kevin. He was amenable to me, and I asked him, I said, We need to work together. I’m the virtual learning librarian and you are here to teach VR. That seems like a no-brainer. And being collegial and finding out what other people do in the library. Going down to talk to Susan about the collection and finding out what’s available down there for us to create a VR experience and being aware of opportunities that are around. The NEFLIN Award is something that’s given every year, and it’s local. So just being aware and not glossing over opportunities, being able to see what’s available out there, and being in tune with the community. We needed to talk to anyone who was available with Miss White, or who knew about Miss White, or was still immersed in her work to get their input. Getting community buy-in is very, very important.
Trina McCowan:
I think that is the most important thing. Beryl is relentless from day one. She’s like, Okay, so we’re really going to do this thing we talked about in my interview, right? A lot of times that’s just an idea, something you say during the interview to wow people and Beryl’s like, We’re doing it.
Beryl White-Bing:
And really not being afraid to learn new things, being willing to learn new things. I think I ran across Jasmine’s interview about the virtual blocks looking for VR information on YouTube. I found it on YouTube and I watched it and I was amazed by it. I emailed her and she was willing to help. So, you know, that’s what we actually did.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #6: Miss White’s story is truly remarkable. She did amazing things in her lifetime. The fact that you shared her story in a new way through technology broadens the reach of her life’s work and shows us that one person can make a big difference in this world. It’s so inspiring. And Beryl, I know you have to leave for another meeting, so thank you for sharing this great information today. Trina and I will keep talking and give the step-by-step guidelines that other libraries can use to develop similar initiatives. So, Trina, in terms of the ways that other libraries can do this kind of work, what are the steps? 18:01
Trina McCowan:
As far as getting started—we started at zero here in my library. We don’t have the VR technology, and this is maybe a good lesson like, Hey, this is scalable. You don’t have to have all of the fancy equipment. We are able to scan and upload, with partners like Beryl and Kevin—put together a program and narrative. We’re not necessarily going to do 3D scans of a room, but create that immersive environment that we can give out to our students, put on YouTube, and make available in the store. With our step-by-step guide, the first one is just idea generation. That really just comes from making those connections with other people. Like, Hey, I have this in my collection, what do you have in yours? Doing that with your college, university, local archives and someone in the community goes a very long way.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #7: Step one ideation. What are the other steps? 19:51
Trina McCowan:
Step two would be the needs assessment. Who is your target audience? Who are you doing this for? Is this just for your college community—the community at large? What gaps in access or engagement will your project address? Because, you have to be able to sell it. That’s a way to get it to a broader audience. Maybe you can get into a school curriculum or something like that. What are your needs? What are your needs like target audience, X, Y, Z, but what are you going to need? Because, it is going to be—it can be talent-heavy and it can also be time-heavy, and it can also be financially heavy. You have to make sure you have those resources available.
The next is team development. Start locally on campus—what can other campus partners contribute? Then look outside. Who are these other places like galleries, museums? How can they assist us?
Permission and ethics—you definitely want to get permission from the people who own the images, the cultures that you’re exploring. Make sure that all of your attributions are correct and that you really give an opportunity for people in the community. If it is relative or people from the railroad, give them the opportunity to be able to speak and participate, to just make that project holistic.
Then of course, funding. So what Beryl said, it goes into a lot of situational awareness. We knew there was this award offered through NEFLIN and we’re like, Hey, it’s the perfect thing. I think Beryl has actually gotten that award like three times because she just keeps on doing these amazing projects.
Get a little creative. Does this qualify for the National Endowment for the Humanities grant for digitization? Maybe. There’s a lot of money that maybe you qualify for if you just think a little bit more creatively. Then make sure your project—and a grant writer can help you with this, is aligned with your funder’s priorities. You’re doing the good work, but you have to be able to sell the good work too. So that’s where some grant writing will help you.
Inspiration and innovation—like Beryl was doing on YouTube, just go through and look at similar projects. There’s no shame in getting ideas from other places. It’s not stealing, it’s inspiration. We want to put as many of these projects out there as we can because our local history is dying with our elders, so we want to preserve that.
We have storyboarding. What Beryl and Susan Swiatosz did, they just sat down and went through the program and laid it out in a way that made sense. It’s kind of a story. You’re a student or a visitor to the reading room, and you’re just exploring and picking up these folders and going from room to room. It does work, no matter which order you pick them up in, so that’s important to do. But there needs to be some sort of overlying narrative to take that viewer through the experience.You definitely want to make sure that in that story you incorporate diverse perspectives. That’s not just culturally, that’s occupationally. What did her coworkers think? What did the nurses and the nursing home think? The more voices you get, the better.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #8: Grant writing is invaluable. That’s what makes the inspiration and innovation possible. Will you talk about that and the final considerations? 24:23
Trina McCowan:
Timelines—this is going back to the meat of the project, timelines as far as creation. We’re all on a budget cycle for the grant or the award. If things had to be bought in a specific timeline and they had to be bought a specific way—all of the tax information, make sure you have good communication with your front office, your administrative office, finance, the awarding funders, finance, all of that.
Then you have to make sure you have the right technology. It’s probably something before you apply for the grant, you might want to have all of those items added up so you can make sure that you have the funding you need to cover all of that. But that not only involves what technology you need to make the thing, but where are you going to host it? Is this thing going to die in five years? If you switch servers, if someone leaves college—make sure that all of those contingencies are planned for and that there’s a succession plan, because how is it going to be updated when technology changes? These are the little things that we don’t necessarily think about. But especially if you have someone like Dr. Pfeil who is immersed in that technology and building VR resources. That expert is going to know, Okay, well, this technology is only going to be good for five years. So you have to think ahead.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #9: Once you have all this, how do you get the word out through publicity and outreach? 26:23
Trina McCowan:
We’re getting in the homestretch. Publicity—publicity and outreach. One of the things that Beryl was sure to do is to hold some talks within the community, some at the University of North Florida and our archives, but also we had some councilwomen from the district where the Clara White Mission was located, and we did some publicity there. They had an opening there, and she communicated it with other schools in the area. Just getting the word out about that.
Then review and update, like I was saying, periodically just return to the project. Maybe we know something more. Maybe we need to add an additional tribute or contributor. Those are the major steps—about twelve, and the worksheet is a little bit more detailed. It’s kind of in a question format so you can just go through and brainstorm your idea.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #10: Thank you for walking us through that, Trina. We will post it on our website for anyone interested. Is there anything else you’d like to share? 27:41
Trina McCowan:
Thank you for having us on. I’m incredibly grateful and I’m really honored. I had a small part in this project—no lie. I was a narrator, but I’m so excited that people really like the work that was done. And they want to do it in their own settings and spaces. That’s incredible. I love it.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #11: I love it, too. And I hope other librarians will consider ways to do similar projects with their resources. Trina, do you have any favorite leadership books or resources and why? 28:15
Trina McCowan:
This is random, but lately I’ve really been getting into stoicism. Ryan Holiday writes these really good books. The first one I read is Ego Is the Enemy, and now I’m reading The Obstacle is the Way. It’s not necessarily a leadership book, but it’s more a governing yourself book, which helps as a leader. I’ve been doing deep dives into that to help me manage my expectations in some interesting times in Florida, and just knowing I’m not the first person to ever have these feelings, I won’t be the last—but how I handle these feelings matters certainly to me and my personal life. But in my professional life and as an up-and-coming leader.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #12: Thank you. In closing, what do libraries mean to you personally? 29:17
Trina McCowan:
I think Frederick Douglass said, Once a man learns how to read, he is forever free. Maybe it was just once you learn to read, you will be forever free. That’s what it means to me as a small kid. Sometimes home was a little bit difficult. The library was within walking distance and it was just a great escape. I never really lost that love for libraries. I tried my hand at being an artist for a couple of years and I was like, It’s not for me. My true love was in library.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Isn’t it remarkable when we get to work in our true love library? This is the same for both you and me. I feel so fortunate that we get to do this work, and I feel fortunate to have had you and Beryl on the podcast today to share this vital library project highlighting the Eartha M.M. white virtual experience and all that went into making it possible. It’s inspiring and I appreciate you both so much.
You’ve been listening to Library Leadership podcast. This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. For more episodes, tune in to Library Leadership Podcast.com, where you can now subscribe to get episodes delivered right to your email inbox. Our producer is Nathan Sinclair Vineyard. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.
We would like to thank the Park City Library for their dedicated support of this show. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of Library Leadership podcast or our sponsors.
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