#Fashionlibrarianship

Abstract

This case study describes the use of Instagram by a fashion librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library (part of The Costume Institute). In a little over three years, @costumeinstitutelibrary gained over 40,000 followers and has received many accolades from the press. Instagram has been a successful medium for international outreach and advocacy of this specialized museum reference library, as well as an increasingly popular tool for reference inquiries when working with non-academic patrons with backgrounds in creative and fashion-related fields. The author reviews best practices, provides examples on how @costumeinstitutelibrary utilized the latest Instagram features and tools, recommends subscription-based social media analytics metric tools, describes free photo imaging tools used to create a consistent visual feed, and explains the behind-the-scenes workflow for this particular Instagram feed within the context of a museum departmental library. [The following article is an expanded version of a presentation given at the ARLIS/NA conference held in New York, New York, in February 2018.]