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We have adopted a practice of putting name of those involved in
the design and construction on most of our exhibits. If we have
acquired the idea from someone else, we often have a label along
the lines of "original concept by....". Visitors often ask who
these people are and we have received praise from visitors from
other science centers. It costs little to do and personalises the exhibit.

Glen Moore
Science Centre and Planetarium
Wollongong, AUSTRALIA
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David Taylor wrote:
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> Another factor that comes into play is that it is really
> difficult to know where the original idea for an exhibit
> came from.  Many of the early exhibits at the Exploratorium
> came from a book called the Handbook for the Physical
> Sciences which is a book of science demonstrations for
> use in the classroom.  Frank Oppenheimer had used
> this book when he taught high school science in Colorado.
>
> I agree with Andy (below) that the look and feel of an exhibit
> are something that an individual museum might claim as
> it's own, but the basic phenomena is often something that
> has been around either in nature or in the classroom for
> many years.
>
> There are two differences I want to raise.  Often someone
> will call and want lots of free information on how an exhibit
> works and how you did things to make it work.  This intellectual
> property is something both sides should be clear in discussing.
> How much is just professional courtesy between museum
> professionals and how much is wanting something for nothing.
> The other situation is how one plans to use exhibit knowledge
> and designs they borrow from a museum.  I think this particularly
> comes into play if you are planning to sell copies of an exhibit.
> I know of one exhibit design firm that copied pages out of the
> Exploratorium Cookbook and put their own logo at the top of
> the page in trying to sell their services to a museum.
>
> We are all here (I hope) to help the public have quality experiences
> that excite them about science and technology and it doesn't
> make sense to reinvent the wheel each time we develop an
> exhibit... but there is something to be said about taking good
> ideas and putting your own stamp on them.
>
> Dave Taylor
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> > From: Lloyd Andy <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Subject: Re: Question about exhibits
>
> > Matthew
> >
> > something to also consider is the nature of the exhibit.  A venue would have
> > a hard time arguing it had ownership of a phenomenon, which is what most of
> > the "Cookbook" type exhibits are based upon - partly why you see similar
> > exhibits all around the world.  You would be on trickier territory with
> > non-phenomenological exhibits as considerably more investment will have gone
> > into the core activity rather than just the fine detail of the design, so
> > creators will certainly feel more ownership of the end result.  On the other
> > hand, these sort of exhibits are difficult to copy without doing the bulk of
> > the work again, so you often better off speaking to the originator anyway.
> >
> > Good luck with your studies!
> >
> > Andy Lloyd                                              tel. +44 (0) 20 7942
> > 4377
> > Interaction & Technology Specialist             fax +44 (0) 20 7942 4383
> > Science Museum Solutions                        www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mperkin2 [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>
> > Subject: Question about exhibits
> >
> > Dear Informal Educators,
> >
> > I have visited several facilities over the past couple of years and have
> > seen
> > many things I would love to duplicate in a facility I may work at in the
> > future.  What are the rules, unwritten and written, on copying and adapting
> > exhibit ideas from facility to facility?  I am currently a doctoral student,
> > formerly the director of a small school planetarium, and hope to someday
> > again work at a planetarium with science center.  Feel free to respond
> off-list to [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Matthew Perkins
> > Ph.D candidate, Science Education
> > University of Tennessee
>
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