ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Ideally, when you develop your exhibit, you set specific goals for what you
hope to achieve. What outcomes are you trying to achieve? What do they look
like? What sorts of behaviors do you want to see from your visitors? How
long do you expect a good experience to take? Are you expecting visitors to
walk away with factoids, curiousity, experiences, ways of thinking, resolve,
or what?

Dwell time alone is not necessarily a good indicator of success. More is not
necessarily better. Was your experience designed to be effective in 30
seconds or does it take a good five minutes to complete? Did your visitor
take their time delving into the details or spend it all struggling to
figure out how the exhibit is supposed to work before giving up? Both of
these scenarios might take the same amount of time.

You will find an extensive bibliography, evaluation case studies and other
useful resources at http://www.informalscience.org/

Some good references are:

	Standards for Museum Exhibitions and Indicators of Excellence, National
Association for Museum Exhibition, http://www.n-a-m-e.org/standards.html

	Borun, Minda, and Randi Korn. 1999. Introduction to museum evaluation,
Professional practice series. Washington, D.C.: American Association of
Museums.

	Diamond, Judy. 1999. Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools For Museums And
Other Informal Educational Settings: AltaMira Press/American Association for
State and Local History.

	Serrell, Beverly. 1998. Paying attention: visitors and museum exhibitions,
Professional practice series. Washington, D.C.: American Association of
Museums.

A few publications where you can find articles on current practices and
specific projects:

	Curator: The Museum Journal (Alta Mira Press)
http://www.altamirapress.com/RLA/Journals/Curator/

	Visitor Studies Today! (Visitor Studies Association)
http://www.visitorstudies.org/index.html

	Journal of Museum Education (Museum Educators Roundtable)
http://www.mer-online.org/publications/index.html

	Current Trends in Audience Research and Evaluation (American Association of
Museums Committee for Audience Research and Evalaution)
http://www.aam-us.org/bookstore/index.cfm?mode=group&id=3

Susan B.F. Wageman
Senior Director, Evaluation, Planning & Research
The Tech Museum of Innovation     [log in to unmask]
201 S Market St                   408-795-6303
San Jose, CA  95113               fax 408-279-7167

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