In this paper, Douglas Hoy of the National Museum of Natural Sciences the impact of new admission fee guidelines from a comprehensive study commissioned by the Canadian government. Hoy presents an overview of the new fees program enacted in June 1988 and its influence on museum attendance throughout Canada.
In this paper, researchers from University of Michigan discuss a major problem facing zoo administrators in major urban metropolitan areas: the relevance and attraction of urban zoos to inner-city minority residents. They present an overview of the methodology and findings from a study that examined zoo visitation to the Detroit Zoo by white and minority residents of Detroit.
In this paper, Elin Kelsey describes the planning and design process for the new "Arctic Canada" exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium. Kelsey discusses a number of parameters whose consideration will provide a more reliable basis for making hte kinds of decisions that exhibit planners must make.
In this paper, Conny Graft presents a brief overview of the interpretive planning process used on larger projects at Colonial Williamsburg as well as lessons learned from one specific program. Graft provides insight into the challenges of planning interpretations and evaluating live interpretive programs.
This paper provides an overview of the Audience Research Consortium of Toronto, comprised of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo, the Ontario Science Center and the Royal Ontario Museum. These groups have a shared vision of attracting a larger and more diverse audience-one that includes nontraditional and multicultural groups. This paper outlines how this group developed, acquired funding, hired a consulting group, and created a proposal and research plan. Preliminary findings are also briefly summarized.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Art Gallery of OntarioRoyal Ontario MuseumOntario Science CentreMetropolitan Toronto ZooWoods Gordon Management Consultants
This paper discusses the underutilization of security personnel in visitor studies. Observations from guards at the Milwaukee Public Museum offer insight into their unique perspective on various visitor trends including ethnic group attendance, exhibit hall traffic patterns, and learning. Based on this study, the author offers three steps to using security guard observations that can enhance communication, increase attendance of target audiences, and aid in program/exhibit policy.
In this paper, Donald D. Patterson of Jacksonville State University discusses the similarities between environmental psychology and visitor studies. Patterson presents a review of the development of the two areas and examines the philosophical similarities that unite them.
In this paper, researchers from the University of Florida discuss the cognitive movement in instruction, which has major implications for research and practice in informal settings. The authors focus on a number of promising cognitive lines of inquiry and suggest their application in informal settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John J. Koran, Jr.Mary Lou KoranJohn Scott Foster
In this paper, researcher Adrian F. Aveni of Jacksonville State University presents a variety of concepts, models and theories of sociology potentially relevant to the field of visitor studies. Aveni also warns of the dangers from the misuse of procedures, misinterpretations of results, poorly framed questions or problems, and faulty assumptions and goals.
In this article, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher Don Thompson shares methods and findings from a front-end evaluation of the Plains Indian Exhibit Area at the Milwaukee Public Museum, which was used to inform exhibit renovation plans. Thompson assessed visitor knowledge of key concepts, the role of existing exhibits in fostering knowledge of these concepts, and unforeseen successes or shortcomings of the exhibits.
This is a brief summary of an article by Michael Alt and Steven Griggs (1988) featured in "Curator." The authors review the processes of perception, short and long term memory, discuss "external myths" and "conceptual myths," and the value of "thinking aloud" as formative evaluation.
This is a summary of a publication by Michael Alt and Steven Griggs (1989), distributed by the Royal Ontario Museum, which provides a helpful model for others--both in terms of encouraging exhibit evaluation and in terms of how it might be accomplished. The publication summarizes four studies completed at the Royal Ontario Museum used to assess the "Mankind Discovering" exhibition from different perspectives: staff evaluation, visitor reaction, observational study of visitors, and visitor understanding and reaction to individual sections.