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This very practical book guides museums on how to create the highest quality experience possible for their visitors. Creating an environment that supports visitor engagement with collections means examining every stage of the visit, from the initial impetus to go to a particular institution, to front-of-house management, interpretive approach and qualitative analysis afterwards.

This holistic approach will be immensely helpful to museums in meeting the needs and expectations of visitors and building their audience. 

This book features:

• includes chapter introductions and discussion sections
• supporting case studies to show how ideas are put into practice
• a lavish selection of tables, figures and plates to support and illustrate the discussion
• boxes showing ideas, models and planning suggestions to guide development
•  an up-to-date bibliography of landmark research.

The Engaging Museum offers a set of principles that can be adapted to any museum in any location and will be a valuable resource for institutions of every shape and size, as well as a vital addition to the reading lists of museum studies students.

Customer Reviews (2)

Museums in the context of historical scholarship
Nazi Germany in 1934 established the Gestapo museum, to help educate the public about the "Red menace."The museum displayed confiscated weapons from the German Communist Party, and displayed the methods they were concealed.The political motivation for this museum is apparent, to instill fear in the public about the communist threat.This is an extreme example of political influence on museums, but also an example of how museums can be manipulated to present an obscure message.Part I of Warren Leon and Roy Rosenzweig'sHistory Museums in the United States deals with the constraints imposed on museums, and the necessity for them to be evaluated like any historian would judge written work.The structure of Part I is separated by essays that deal with: gallery exhibitions, big-city museums, outside gallery, historical homes, and case studies concerned with the Gettysburg battlefield and EPCOT Center at Disneyland, and are evaluated like a book review.Despite the various methods of presenting and evaluating history, these essays, and their authors, hold a common purpose of critically evaluating museums as the "central means of presenting history to the public" (xiii).
The constraints of institution politics, audience, and financing influence museum presentations, and bind these museum critiques (xx).Part I covers different types of museum presentations, which range from gallery exhibitions to Disneyland.One of the fundamental problems of these presentations is the idea of museums as "shrines" (31).Whether the museum is trying to illustrate progress through technology, or promote the "great man" theory through historic houses, these presentations do not deal with the conflict and darker sides of history.To the credit of these presentations their employees are relatively trained and attempt to represent history accurately, but like professional historians can never get to the truth, because history is not about truth but the pursuit of it.The fundamental problem is when corporate ventures become involved as is the case with Gettysburg and more interestingly EPCOT center.
Michael Wallace argues, "The past is too important to be left to the private sector.If we wish to restore our social health, we had better get beyond Mickey Mouse history," and is the main argument of his essay, "Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World," (179).Wallace's essay presents the fundamental problems of presenting history to the public, and a fundamental flaw in reviewing Disneyland as museum.Walt Disney's portrayal of history was utopian in nature; Disney wanted to improve the past not reproduce it; a Disney designer refers to this as "Disney Realism," which is possibly influenced by the Soviet Union's idea of "Socialist Realism," or the idea that art can mold the human soul (161).This is a fundamental problem with Corporate Disney, and their presentations at EPCOT center, which takes audiences from the dim past to a model society of the future; the audiences become participants in the corporate vision of the past and future (169).The problem resides with the audience.Is the audience there becomes of some fascination with the past or just entertainment?Wallace is correct that history should not be left to the private sector, but I doubt the majority of people view the world through the idea of "Disney Realism."
Leon and Rosenzweig's compilation of essays effectively place museums in the context of historical works that need to be reviewed and scrutinized; especially given the fact that museums are one of the core methods of presenting history to the public.The essays in Part I demonstrate the constraints of museum presentation, and the ultimate problem of corporate intervention and entertainment on historical presentation.History should not be in the hands of corporations, or authoritarian regimes, but the people who question, evaluate, and attempt to synthesize historical documentation, to obtain the closest interpretation of truth.

History Museums in the United States : A Critical Assessment
A must have! Being a new student to the museum studies field this book's importance can not be understated.The editors collected 15 essays from the most predominant scholars in the field of museum studies.If youdo not know who they are you will after reading this book.The bookprovides a great indrodution to all the problems, or another way of sayingit philosophical thinking ,that goes into developing museums and exhibits. Once you read this book you can concentrate on a specific area, but thisbook is a great overview. ... Read more

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Sport is undergoing a global technological revolution. Year on year, records are smashed, equipment gets more sophisticated, facilities improve almost beyond recognition. These changes are impacting on all areas of sport, from shoes to cycles and stadia. Is this making sport more exciting for participants and spectators? Or are talent and determination becoming secondary to money and technology, devaluing honest competition?

In Higher, Further, Faster…, Stewart Ross looks at these questions and much more. Starting with a description of technology's impact on elements common to various sports, such as bats, balls, pitches and special clothing, he then examines the controversies that arise almost daily, from golf club technology to the use of Hawk-eye in tennis. He also looks ahead to the techno-future of major sports such as football, tennis, golf, cricket, cycling and motor sport, and asks where they are going:

• Are referees and umpires becoming redundant?
• If drugs will always win, do we really have a choice about using them?
• Will we ever see a Super-Human Olympics?
• Is modern professional sport more about technology than talent?
• Can athletes from the developing world ever hope to compete in modern sport?

This book is a must-read for all participants and fans who want to understand the technological upheaval that is shaking modern sport to its very foundations. One thing's for sure: whether you find it stimulating or just plain scary, the future will be very, very different…

About the author
Stewart Ross is a full-time writer with some 200 published titles to his credit. He is also an occasional journalist and broadcaster, a frequent lecturer, notably on the QE2 and at ICES (La Roche sur Yon, France, where he lectures to science students), and a much sought-after presenter of workshops to schools and adult groups.

www.stewartross.net
... Read more

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At the beginning of the 21st century museums are challenged on a number of fronts. The prioritisation of learning in museums in the context of demands for social justice and cultural democracy combined with cultural policy based on economic rationalism forces museums to review their educational purposes, redesign their pedagogies and account for their performance.

The need to theorise learning and culture for a cultural theory of learning is very pressing. If culture acts as a process of signification, a means of producing meaning that shapes worldviews, learning in museums and other cultural organisations is potentially dynamic and profound, producing self-identities. How is this complexity to be ‘measured’? What can this ‘measurement’ reveal about the character of museum-based learning? The calibration of culture is an international phenomenon, and the measurement of the outcomes and impact of learning in museums in England has provided a detailed case study. Three national evaluation studies were carried out between 2003 and 2006 based on the conceptual framework of Generic Learning Outcomes. Using this revealing data Museums and Education reveals the power of museum pedagogy and as it does, questions are raised about traditional museum culture and the potential and challenge for museum futures is suggested.

Product Description
How loud can you burp? Could we use animal poo to make electricity? Why is water wet, and is anything wetter than water? What's the deadliest disease in the world? What are clouds for? What's the difference between a brain and a computer? This is a wonderfully funny and informative book which helps us take a fresh look at the world (and universe) we live in, with no boring bits and an abundance of fascinating facts! ... Read more

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Designed as a primer for the museum or gallery visit required in many introductory art courses, this book is a combination reference, workbook, directory, and notepad.It is available in adiscount package with McGraw-Hill art textbooks or separately. ... Read more

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There are books about how to use Twitter, but none about the best ways in which museums, galleries and cultural organisations large and small are using Twitter to involve and expand their audiences. This unique book - written by some of the museum community's most experienced and creative users of Twitter - remedies this. The development of this publication has been overseen by a distinguished Editorial Advisory Board, and it has been written by some of the museum community's most experienced and creative Twitter users on three continents. The book is in two sections. The first provides everything museum users need to know to have a successful Twitter presence; gives guidance on a maze of organisational and policy issues; and deals with advanced options like integrating audio and video, using third-party applications, measuring results, undertaking research, and integration with other social media platforms. The second section provides in-depth case studies from some of the world's most successful museum users - information and inspiration that will help users build both followers and the kind of positive results any museum hopes for! ... Read more

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Reinventing the Museum gathers 35 seminal articles reflecting over 100 years of dialogue within the musem community about what it means to be a high-quality, relevant institution. Important reading for museum professionals, students, and anyone interested in museums and their development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Reinventing the Museum
I need this book for a graduate course, and it's much more readable and interesting than a lot of the other material I'm reading. Insightful, with short chapters that are accessible and interesting. ... Read more

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Museums, Society, Inequality explores the wide-ranging social roles and responsibilities of the museum. It brings together diverse international perspectives from across the globe, which collectively seek to stimulate critical debate, to inform the work of practitioners and policy makers, and to advance recognition of the agency of museums. This unusual collection gives valuable insight on the museum's relationship to the outside community, and its essential role as a social institution that influences, and must respond to, the changing characteristics and concerns of society. ... Read more

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Fully updated and extended to include the many changes that have occurred in the last decade, this second edition of world-renowned text Museum Basics provides a basic guide to all aspects of museum work and staff experience from museum organization, through collections management and conservation, to audience development and education.

Drawing on a wide range of practical experience, the authors have provided an excellent tool that enable museums throughout the world to conquer a common challenge; to keep up-to-date with new ideas and changing practices.

Organized on a modular basis, with over 100 units, Museum Basics is a reference to support day-to-day museum management, and a key text in pre-service and in-service training programmes and works brilliantly alongside cast studies, project work and group discussion.

With glossary, sources of information and a select bibliography, this is certainly a book that no museum professional, nor museum and heritage studies student will want to be without. ... Read more

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Museums display much more than artifacts; Museum Culture makes us on a tour through the complex of ideas, values and symbols that pervade and shape the practice of exhibiting today. Bringing together a broad range of perspectives from history, art history, critical theory and sociology, the contributors to this new collection argue that museums have become a central institution and metaphor in contemporary society.
Discussing exhibition histories and practice in Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, Israel and the United States, the authors explore the ways in which museums assign meaning to art through various kinds of exhibitions and display strategies, examining the political implications of these strategies and the forms of knowledge they invoke and construct. The collection also discusses alternative exhibition forms, the involvement of some museums with the more spectacular practices of mass media culture, and looks at how museums construct their public. ... Read more

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The focus of this publication is pollutants in the museum environment, their sources, how they can harm works of art, and what to do about it. ... Read more

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Tells how to plan a museum visit, gives advice on appreciating paintings, sculptures, and museum buildings themselves, and discusses special shows, permanent collections, and different types of museums.Amazon.com Review
A glance at this book's table of contents gives you an idea of its intentions: "Developing your own pace; Where to begin; Displays can dramatize--but don't let them fool you; There's no rule on how long it takes to appreciate a masterpiece." David Finn encourages museumgoers to rely on their own impressions. In the first sentence of the first chapter, he writes that there is "no right or wrong way to visit a museum." Finn gives a general overview of the layout of a museum and uses illustrations from museums around the world to present basic art history concepts and ways of looking at artwork. With practical information he encourages museum visitors to feel comfortable, confident, and develop their own sensibilities in a museum--instead of relying on someoneelse's. "Discrimination," Finn writes, "is a necessary component of appreciation." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A how to book and that's about it
David Finn's How to Visit a Museum is a good starter book for one who wants a quick starter course in museums and art. What to look for and how to view art. I think this would be a great book for teachers and new art students. I bought this book second hand and enjoyed it as a quick refresher course. However as a whole it seemed more of a short book for tourists, as I finished it in sitting. However if you want to read a book before you travel to a large museum I would highly recommend this as a starter book for a journey into the world of art.

Interested in art? Not sure what to do? Check out this book.
Ever felt obliged to stop by an art museum while on vacation just because you were in the area, but then you weren't quite sure what to do once you got there?If so, this may be the book for you.David Finn's easy-to-read text presents many thoughtful ideas on how to really get something out of your next trip to a museum.The book is filled with copious photographs of artwork and art museums (some in color, some black and white, all reproduced with the high quality you'd expect from Abrams) that do an excellent job of complimenting the points made in the text.It's a book you'll want to read cover-to-cover at least once, and then come back and sample bits over and over again - just the way you may end up visiting your local art museum once you've read this fine book ... Read more

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Written over a thirty-five year career, the essays in Civilizing the Museum introduce students to thepowerful, sometimes contested, and often unrealized notion that museums should welcome all because they house the collective memory of all.
Drawing on her experience working in and with museums in the US and throughout the world, Author Elaine Heumann Gurian explores the possibilities for making museums more central and relevant to society.
The twenty-two essays are organized around five main themes:
* museum definitions
* civic responsibility and social service
* architectural spaces
* exhibitions
* spirituality and rationality.
And these themes address the elements that would make museums more inclusive such as:
* exhibition technique
* space configurations
* the personality of the director
* the role of social service
* power sharing
* types of museums
* the need for emotion humor and spirituality.
Without abandoning the traditional museum processes, Gurian shows how museums can honor tradition whilst embracing the new.
Enriched by her experience in groundbreaking museums, Gurian has provided a book that provokes thought, dialogue and action for students and professionals in the field to realize the inclusive potential of museums. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Important Book
"Civilizing the Museum" is an important book that looks at the ways in which the public and museums interact with each other in the historical and contemporary moment. Gurian looks critically at what museums are and what they could and should be. Her call for free admission to museums is one which points the way to a more participatory sense of what it means to be a public institution. Gurian has been at the forefront of the critical conversation around the evolving role of public museums for many years, offering much insight, analysis and advise to those both working in these institutions and those frequenting them. An invaluable book that provides rich food for thought. ... Read more

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Learn about science the same way Ben Franklin did--by performing incredible experiments!

Ben Franklin, the famous patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also America's first great scientist. At a time when science was a mystery to most people, he performed incredible experiments that revealed amazing facts about light, heat, sound, electricity, the weather, and other aspects of the natural world.

Now the enormously popular Franklin Institute Science Museum shows you how to do your own exciting experiments Ben Franklin's way. He used common objects such as cooking oil, a glass bottle, or pieces of colored cloth to chart the Gulf Stream, predict the weather, or measure how much a molecule weighs. Using inexpensive, easy-to-find items, you'll discover how to:
* Build an optical toy shop, including a prism, kaleidoscope, telescope, and periscope
* Make a weather station with a working barometer, hygrometer, and other homemade meteorological instruments
* Create an orchestra with flutes, water chimes, maracas, and a guitar you make yourself
* Build your own printing press and print documents on paper that you make in your own paper mill
* Perform these and dozens of other experiments at home, in the classroom, or as science fair projects--and enjoy the fun of it


The Franklin Institute Science Museum was built in 1934 in Ben Franklin's hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first hands-on science museum ever, it offers people a chance to learn about science by experimenting with hundreds of exhibits, including a 20-foot model of the human heart, a 350-ton steam locomotive, and a working weather station. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ben's Experiments Are Great!
This is a wonderful book if you're looking for experiments that the kids can do safely and use household objects to do them with! A few items I did have to go to the store to buy but very few. Each chapter coincided with their own Science books whether it was weather or astrology. The only disappointing thing is the fact that there were no other books to form a series. NOW that would have been wonderful!

The Ben Franklin Book of Easy and Incredible Exp
As a homeschool teacher I find this book a great tool for simple, yet effective experiments.The book contains detailed information about a variety of science subjects, including:weather, electricity, light and sight, paper and printing, etc. ... Read more

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Kids and teachers can build their own science projects based on exhibits from San Francisco's premiere science museum

This revised and updated edition offers instructions for building junior versions, or "snacks," of the famed Exploratorium's exhibits. The snacks, designed by science teachers, can be used as demonstrations, labs, or as student science projects and all 100 projects are easy to build from common materials. The Exploratorium, a renowned hands-on science museum founded by physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer, is noted for its interactive exhibits that richly illustrate scientific concepts and stimulate learning.

• Offers a step-by-step guide for building dynamic science projects and exhibits
• Includes tips for creating projects made from easy-to-assembly items
• Thoroughly revised and updated, including new "snacks," images, and references

Customer Reviews (1)

Good resource for homeschool labs and unit studies
The Exploratorium in San Francisco is 40 years old this year, and one of the ways they are celebrating is the republication of The Exploratorium Science Snackbook. It was originally published in 1991. This new edition has been updated with new snacks (miniature science exhibits and investigations), illustrations, references and teaching tips. Although it was created for students in grades 5-12, it can be used with all grades with adult supervision.

Part One includes snacks that focus on sight and visual perception. Part Two: electricity, energy and matter; Part Three: light and color. Part Four: Force and Motion; and Part Five: Sound.

Teachers and parents can use the snacks as demonstrations, lessons and labs.Students can use the snacks for science fairs, science lab projects, and to earn science badges.

Each snack includes an introduction, a list of materials needed, instructions how to complete the snack, and an explanation of the science behind it. Photos and illustrations are included to help you visualize the project.

Materials needed for the snacks are not always readily available, so you will need to do some shopping around for some items. This is the only reason I gave it four stars, instead of five. There is a list of science supply resources in the back of the book. One that is not on the list that I would recommend for homeschoolers is Home Science Tools. I recommend that you purchase your science supplies as needed and keep them in a safe place for your whole homeschooling career.

The Exploratorium Science Snackbook is an excellent resource for homeschool science labs, especially for those of you who do unit studies. As you study each different science topic, you can use the snacks in this book as a resource for science labs.

For instance, let's say you were doing a unit on sound. You could have your child research sound on the Internet. Next, assign some nonfiction library books and/or biographies related to sound. Then using the index and the "tuning fork" icon in the Snackbook, select snacks that relate to sound and have your child complete them for lab. For art, have your child illustrate a concept learned from his or her research. Play a sound-identification game. Download and print off worksheets or coloring pages from the Internet related to sound. Many of these can be found freeing by doing a search for "sound" and "worksheet" or "sound" and "coloring page." Finally, have your child write a report or research paper (depending on age level) on the topic. Instant unit study! ... Read more

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For more than ten years, the Science for Conservators series has been the key basic texts for conservators throughout the world. Scientific concepts are basic ot the conservation of artefacts of every type, yet many conservators have little or no scientific training. These introductory volumes provide non-scientists with the essential theoretical background to their work. ... Read more