Museum Services Research Articles

How and Why of User Studies: RLG's RedLightGreen as a Case Study

SUMMARY This article documents a lifecycle approach to employing user-centered design, covering both qualitative and quantitative data gathering methods in support of using this approach for product design, usability testing, and market research. The author provides specific case studies of usability studies, focus groups, interviews, ethnographic studies, and web log analysis. The article supplies practical advice and tools for those interested in exploring user-centered design concepts for web-based tools and services in archives, libraries, and museums.

A Way Forward: The Remaking of New Zealand Museums

The social injustices and inequities arising from historical dishonouring of New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi Te Tiriti o Waitangi of 1840, provide a unique national imperative to address the local consequences of colonialism and racism, which are also evident in museum services worldwide. Both the remaking of New Zealand museums as truly bicultural organisations and the development of indigenous-led arts and heritage services and projects are essential aspects of a way forward. Addressing this key social issue requires many development programmes at the governance, management and operational levels of museum services. Some recent New Zealand examples are provided in this paper and a glossary of terms is provided at the end of the article. This article has been adapted by the author, with the permission of the Museums & Galleries New South Wales, Australia—from an original article published on www.mgnsw.org.au and in summary form in their newsletter the mag, issue three 2005.

What Impressions Do People Have Regarding Mobile Guidance Services In Museums?: Designing a Questionnaire that Uses Opinions from the General Public

Abstract Developers of museum service systems want to know what users think about their systems and they often design questionnaires to capture users' opinions. However, there are usually serious gaps between what developers want to know and what the users really think about the system. The present research aims to develop a questionnaire that takes into consideration the user's point of view, including opinions of people who do not want to use the system. We put the plan into practice by gathering opinions such as feelings, demands, and expectations about the systems from the general public.

Building Illinois Electronic Documents Access

ABSTRACT All levels of government are facing the issues surrounding the preservation of access to “born digital” and digitized publications and records. In Illinois, these challenges are being met by gradually building systems and expertise with the support of grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Today, Illinois has in place a program to collect, preserve, and serve online access to state government information.

What Impressions Do People Have Regarding Mobile Guidance Services In Museums?

Developers of museum service systems want to know what users think about their systems and they often design questionnaires to capture users' opinions. However, there are usually serious gaps between what developers want to know and what the users really think about the system. The present research aims to develop a questionnaire that takes into consideration the user's point of view, including opinions of people who do not want to use the system. We put the plan into practice by gathering opinions such as feelings, demands, and expectations about the systems from the general public.

The Theology of Memory: Mormon Historical Consciousness

Research Article| January 01 2007 The Theology of Memory: Mormon Historical Consciousness Steven L. Olsen Steven L. Olsen Steven L. Olsen received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago. He has worked for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for his entire career and currently serves as an associate managing director of the Family and Church History Department. He has presented and published widely in the fields of Mormon studies and museum studies, has taught anthropology at Brigham Young University, and has served in a variety of professional service organizations, including the Western Museums Association, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Utah State Humanities Council, Utah Office of Museum Services, and American Society of Church History. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The FARMS Review (2007) 19 (2007) (2): 25–35. https://doi.org/10.5406/farmsreview.19.2.0025 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Steven L. Olsen; The Theology of Memory: Mormon Historical Consciousness. The FARMS Review 1 January 2007; 19 (2007) (2): 25–35. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/farmsreview.19.2.0025 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressMormon Studies Review Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2007 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2007 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Understanding the Role of Service Convenience in Art Museum Marketing: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT Attracting both tourists and local consumers, art museums are an important part of the U.S. hospitality and tourism industry. In light of rapidly increasing operating costs and decreasing funding, U.S. art museums have begun more market-oriented efforts to broaden their appeal and accessibility, thereby increasing awareness and visitation. These nonprofit organizations compete broadly with other leisure activities for consumers' discretionary time. Here, a recently developed model of service convenience is used as the theoretical framework for our exploration of important art museum services and components of service convenience. Four focus group discussions were conducted among art museum visitors. The findings suggest that various factors influence decision, access, and transaction convenience, which, in turn, influence the overall perceptions of service convenience. Hypotheses and a conceptual model are developed and discussed, along with future research directions.

Essentialism, adaptation and justice: Towards a new epistemology of museums

This article treats the prevalent confused mixture of utilitarian, art-and-knowledge-for-their-own-sake and ideological interpretations of the purpose of museums as a problem of epistemology, arguing that that key dimensions of museum knowledge (of objects, visitors, museums themselves, and of society) need to be integrated to achieve coherence. A new object-based, visitor-centred, storytelling epistemology is proposed. This would take an interdisciplinary approach and aim to unleash, rather than mute the real power of objects. It would address human destructiveness, as well as celebrating human creativity and the wonders of nature. It would respect the meaning-making practices of real, as opposed to idealized, imaginary visitors, and promote staff self-awareness in managing bureaucratic drift into introversion and avoidance of difficult issues. Incorporating a theory of justice, it would erode boundaries created by presentation traditions which, though marginal to object experiences, discriminate in favour of specific social groups—often groups with whom staff identify. Providing a museum service on a visibly fair basis is essential for museums to achieve intellectual coherence as well as societal support.

Recruiting the Under-Represented

SUMMARY“Science Links” is a program funded by a grant from the Institute of Library and Museum Services to recruit and educate ten diverse students with strong science and technology backgrounds or interests to the field of science librarianship. This paper described the recruitment phase of the project, launched in the summer of 2005. Although national in scope, a key component of the recruitment process was an active public relations campaign that targeted students at Historically Black Colleges & Universities in the southeast. Six librarians from underrepresented groups employed at the University of Tennessee, along with the Co-Principal Investigators for the grant, explain the strategies used to identify and select institutions likely to produce a high number of applicants for on-site visits. Obstacles, challenges, and unanticipated issues faced during the recruitment phase are also addressed. Designed to be a collaborative effort, the program emphasizes the importance of partnerships in achieving success. One expected outcome will be a carefully evaluated model that may be used to recruit future science librarians, with an emphasis on those from minority populations. The initial recruitment phase concluded in February 2006, the deadline for applicants to submit a “letter of intent” to apply to the program.

Building the Mississippi Digital Library

AbstractThe Mississippi Digital Library was founded in 2003 with the help of an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to develop the framework to support a lasting cooperative digital library program for the state. This pilot phase is a joint venture between Delta State University, Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, The University of Mississippi, and The University of Southern Mississippi; it focuses on Civil Rights era materials of national intellectual and educational value. The Mississippi Digital Library is providing leadership in a cutting-edge field by creating an alternative model for digital collaboration and by continuing to develop a mechanism for resolving intellectual property and privacy rights issues for 20th century collections.

Museums and Identity in Glasgow

In order to explore the extent to which museums can go beyond expressing and influence people's individual and communal identities, this article reviews episodes from the past 20 years in the history of one group of museums. Glasgow Museums comprise the largest civic museum service in the UK, with international quality collections of art, history and natural history. The city also suffers from some of the worst levels of health, poverty and educational attainment in Britain. Within the context of these contrasts and of the interaction of diverse local, class and religious identities, the museum service has tried to achieve its various objectives: making ‘high culture’ widely accessible, providing a recreational and educational facility for local people, expressing civic pride and promoting cultural tourism. This article explores both the impact of these factors on Glasgow Museums and the attempts by Glasgow Museums to influence the identities of their visitors and to contribute to the creation of a more just society.

Essentialism, adaptation and justice: Towards a new epistemology of museums

This article treats the prevalent confused mixture of utilitarian, art-and-knowledge-for-their-own-sake and ideological interpretations of the purpose of museums as a problem of epistemology, arguing that that key dimensions of museum knowledge (of objects, visitors, museums themselves, and of society) need to be integrated to achieve coherence. A new object-based, visitor-centred, storytelling epistemology is proposed. This would take an interdisciplinary approach and aim to unleash, rather than mute the real power of objects. It would address human destructiveness, as well as celebrating human creativity and the wonders of nature. It would respect the meaning-making practices of real, as opposed to idealized, imaginary visitors, and promote staff self-awareness in managing bureaucratic drift into introversion and avoidance of difficult issues. Incorporating a theory of justice, it would erode boundaries created by presentation traditions which, though marginal to object experiences, discriminate in favour of specific social groups—often groups with whom staff identify. Providing a museum service on a visibly fair basis is essential for museums to achieve intellectual coherence as well as societal support.

The Renaissance of Museums in Britain

In this paper – given as a lecture at Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the summer of 2003 – I survey the remarkable renaissance of museums – national and regional, public and private – in Britain in recent years, largely made possible with the financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. I look in detail at four non-national museum projects of particular interest: the Horniman Museum in South London, a remarkable and idiosyncratic collection of anthropological, natural history and musical material which has recently been re-housed and redisplayed; secondly, the nearby Dulwich Picture Gallery, famous for its 17th- and 18th-century Old Master paintings, a masterpiece of 19th-century architecture by Sir John Soane, which has been restored, and modern museum services provided. The third is the New Art Gallery, Walsall, where the Garman Ryan collection of early 20th-century painting and sculpture form the centrepiece of a new building with fine galleries and the forum is the Manchester Art Gallery, where the former City Art Gallery and the Athenaeum have been combined in a single building in which to display the city's rich art collections. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, of which I am Director, is the most important museum of art and archaeology in England outside London and the greatest University Museum in the world. Its astonishingly rich collections are introduced and the transformational plan for the museum is described. In July 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund announced a grant of £15 million and the renovation of the Museum is now underway.

AlabamaMosaic: sharing Alabama history online

PurposeThis paper aims to summarize a three‐year federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to create a statewide digital collection.Design/methodology/approachThis paper describes the Cornerstone Project: its background, the processes used to determine appropriate standards, guidelines, and best practices for digital collections, the technology selected for the digital production centers and the web portal, and its plans for the future. The project is a collaborative statewide initiative to make unique historical treasures from Alabama's archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories electronically accessible to Alabama residents as well as students and scholars around the world.FindingsThe project has demonstrated a successful model for statewide collaboration among all types of repositories. NAAL member institutions are helping other repositories create digital collections of unique Alabama historical resources.Practical implicationsThe Cornerstone Project offers practical procedures that can be replicated by any consortia considering distributed digital collection building.Originality/valueThe project offers training to help librarians, archivists, and other staff successfully plan, implement, and complete digitization projects. Three shared digital production facilities at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), Auburn University, and The University of Alabama serve as training centers and assist with local digitization efforts.

Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945–1970

“Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm … Blues, 1945–1970.” Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 222 Fifth Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37203. Temporary exhibition, March 27, 2004–Dec. 31, 2005. Daily 9–5, closed Tanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Adults $15.95, youth $7.95, under 5 free, seniors, students, military $13.95. 5,000 sq. ft. Carolyn Tate, senior director of museum services; Daniel Cooper and Michael Gray, curators; esi Design, 1220 Exhibits, and Country Music Hall of Fame, designers. For over three-quarters of a century, people have recognized Nashville, Tennessee, as the home of commercial country music. This well-known affiliation commenced when radio station wsm began broadcasting the Grand Ole Opry barn-dance program in the mid-1920s. In the ensuing decades, countless white rural and working-class artists, musicians, songwriters, and fans—along with numerous recording companies, booking agencies, management services, and music publishers—transformed the “Athens of the South” (a nineteenth-century moniker adopted by...

Disaster management

The article is based on a review, commissioned by the East Midlands Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (EMMLAC), of the East Midlands Museums Service (EmmS) Regional Emergencies and Disaster Squad (REDS). Research methods used included: literature and Internet review, review of REDS documentation, interviews with REDS personnel, questionnaire survey of museums, archives and libraries in the East Midlands, and select follow-up interviews. The article highlights aspects of the findings of the review, considers the transferability of the REDS model to other domains, suggests lessons that can be learned by others in the sector, and makes recommendations for further collaboration between libraries, archives and museums and others with regard to the development of disaster management in the sector.

Collaborative Cataloging

Publishing images online is challenging enough for any one institution. When the University of Washington Libraries and the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle decided to do so and include ten small local heritage organizations in the process, Dublin Core provided the glue that made it work. The goal of providing integrated Web access to the combined materials from all the museums, while maintaining individualized databases for each organization was achieved through the use of standards, hard-work, cooperation, and an IMLS (Institute for Museum and Library Services) grant.

The New Jersey Digital Highway: A Next-generation Approach to Statewide Digital Library Development

The New Jersey Digital Highway (NJDH) is a statewide collaborative being built by public information providers in New Jersey including libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, public broadcasting, and schools. Its broad mission is to develop and sustain an immersive, user-centered information portal to support the New Jersey learner, providing seamless access to cultural heritage materials. To that end, NJDH integrates concepts and technologies of mature digital library initiatives. Equal attention is being given to the competing needs of standardization and customization. It has a user-centered focus that emphasizes the active engagement of the education community and end users. The project stresses iterative training and assessment to inform the entire development and presentation process. But the NJDH initiative extends beyond that of earlier statewide digitization projects in its core mission: to build a robust preservation platform that will ensure perpetual access to the State's digitized collections. NJDH development is one of the first statewide digitization initiatives to have as its core mission the development of a solid digital preservation platform. The integration of core digital preservation extends the capabilities of existing consortial digital library initiatives. NJDH will demonstrate a digital preservation strategy for a statewide digitization initiative that is extensible to other states or institutions. The initial development of NJDH was funded through a National Leadership Grant for Museums and Libraries awarded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in 2003.

2004 METRO Digitization Survey: Final Report Prepared by the Metropolitan New York Library Council and Digital Collection Services, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Given the depth of resources in the member libraries of the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), and because of the rich historical, cultural and language diversity of New York City and Westchester County, METRO supports the value of members' locally digitized information. Actively assisting members with local digitization efforts has been an important goal of METRO's Five Year Plan of Service since 2001. This survey, supported in part by Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds, awarded to the New York State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, pursues that goal, and moves forward the goal of collaborative digitization projects in the METRO region.

The role of partnerships in the delivery of local government museum services

Partnerships have become more prevalent in the delivery of public services, particularly in relation to non‐traditional sectors such as culture, arts and leisure. This paper presents a synthesis of research on partnerships and their relevance to local museums in the light of recent government policy. The relevance of partnerships to this sector is explored through a case study of four local authorities in Northern Ireland that partnered to form a regional museum service. Qualitative interviews revealed that despite the small scale of the partnership, a number of benefits have been delivered and that the partnership mechanism can work for organisations with little in the way of resources. Much of the success of the case study partnership can be attributed to the skills and leadership of the appointed member of staff. Further research is recommended to map the type, scope and purpose of museum partnerships in order to develop a typology for this sector and to evaluate current government policy.