Late last month, we ran the first of what will (hopefully) be many twebevents. With Cecilia Garibay and Lisa Sasaki joining Elizabeth Merritt and Phil Katz, we spent an hour on Twitter sharing information about demographics and museums, how to gain a diverse audience and staff; and ultimately shared links to information out on the Web.

This was my first time working in this format and I found it fascinating. It included all the things you find in a regular chatroom, but with all the constraints of Twitter. Having only 140 characters (less obviously once you start using hashtags) makes for some very sharp thinking. How do you express a big thought in a simple and clear manner? Want to see how successful we were? Check out the transcript of the tweets here.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the best parts of this event were the links that we shared. Here is a brief rundown on some of them. Check it out and let us know your thoughts. Also, we are interested in doing more of these in the future, so let us know what topics you’re interested in discussing. Perhaps you could be a panelist!

• American FactFinderSource of basic demographic data
• Pew Research Center Social and demographic trends
• US Census Guide from BackgroundChecks.org How to get the most from Census.gov
• Population Reference Center Information for people around the world about population, health and the environment.
• Philanthropy News Digest: Minorities
• Report about diversity in libraries from 1988
• Engaging Diverse Activities in America From the Japanese American National Museum
• Race Remixed: Kids choosing “all of the above” Article from the New York Times
• Danforth Museum Teen program exploring art/museum career options
• Royal British Columbia Museum Behind the Scenes exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum
• IBM Diversity 3.0
• Bureau of Labor Statistics Predicts museum jobs to increase faster than average
• Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
  Offering internships to high school students

– Guzel duChateau, CFM Coordinator and AAM New Media Specialist.

Skip over related stories to continue reading article