three things- guaranteed feedback, osmosis of virtual & bricks/mortar resource base, outreach to Nth degree

1. With poor rates of response to my page of questions sent out to borrowers of the JapanKit artifact and resource boxes, I realize that I can minimize any obstacles by asking a day and time when I may phone and pose my questions about useful/unused parts of the JapanKits. So despite the wonders of email, sometimes the one-on-one older technology gets better results when collecting feedback.

2. www.lib.umich.edu is what the 20 foot banner reads, strung across the face of the venerable red brick graduate library at the heart of the U. Michigan campus. Here is an example of the physical resource base being intersected by the virtual, electronic (asynchronous, atopic) one.
Imagine the same for an outreach location, where the physical offerings (lending library or on-site viewing/browsing, campus exhibit space) intersect the virtual ones online (language learning resources, current events and other up-to-the-minute offerings/webcams and webcast radio/TV, online photo galleries and narrated slideshow presentations, audio recordings of previous on-campus events/performances)

3. http://www.german-institute.org/ is the homepage of the German government's cultural promotion office, the Goethe Institute (GI).
A few years ago I attended a preconference session as part of the annual conference of the Michigan Council for the Social Studies. I've talked with their exhibit hall representatives at the annual meeting of the Michigan World Languages Association, too. Like my own outreach for Japan, the GI focuses on one language and one country, for the mostpart. So I looked for direct parallels: if they have XYZ products and services for k-12 and community colleges, then maybe we of the Japan Outreach community should do so as well. I was very impressed with the numerous publications, maps and ancillaries given at cost or for free. And while not directly produced by GI, a German-language website caught my eye in 2006, www.schellingstrasse60.de Here you can explore the inhabitants and shops within a single building located in Munich. The audio is in German, there is text and extensive images. I would love to see similar interactive work for all languages/societies.