THE WORKSHOP “BOOK AS A MANY-SIDED SOURCE OF MUSEUM PRESENTATIONS”: INFORMAL EDUCATION OF MUSEUM STAFF

Abstract

The article presents the concept and structure of the workshop “Book as a many-sided source of museum presentations”. The authors have the aim to familiarize with it a wide range of audiences among the museum staff on the base of the library of the National Museum of Ukrainian History, as well as to give the possibility for scaling and diversification of the proposed experience by other museums. Conditions for conducting the workshop as a non-formal education workshop, that include a rule agreement of communication, common goals, team building, the rules for using the book and sufficient physical conditions of participants to work with paper dust are set in the text. The structure, optimal duration, step-by-step scenario and methods of the workshop are described, too. Attention is раid to such elements of the workshop as the choice of a book. The working process with that includes several types of analyses for the participants to obtain the skills expected by the organizers. It is emphasized that it is important to find links between personalities that were mentioned in the books or were their owners, with the Ukrainian context involved. The article also presents the description and terms of the six practical and interactive tasks, performed consistently, that dominate in the lecture and are balanced in the content (individual and group work). Numerous case studies (as examples for the tasts) are also proposed. All the proposed activities contribute to practical skills of the museum employees and let them become more practical in the way that any book could be used as an active participant of the museum communication, not its passive object of the exposition.

Key words: old printed book, bibliographic index, history of the Jewish community, inventory, museum library, informal education of adults, unique book, Judaica.