Visitors as collaborators?

This email just in from Jay Rounds:

Lynda,

Just got my copy of MUSEUM REVOLUTIONS, and the first thing I read was your article. Very interesting! Great idea to ask visitors about their own concepts of learning; the results proved very useful. I'm very intrigued by your question "do museums facilitate visitor learning despite themselves?" Have you developed that thought in more detail? My own take is that things make more sense when we move away from thinking of museums and visitors as if they were collaborating on a common task, and think of them having different jobs that intersect in ways that are very important, but strictly limited.

Jay

Lovely to hear from you Jay and glad you found the article useful. Since that paper I moved my thinking ahead quite substantially when I submitted my final thesis. Copies of various chapters and a more developed paper can be found on my wiki. Chapter 7 is probably the most useful summary of my work.

I found in my second stage that visitors played three different, yet simultaneous roles – museum expert, visit manager and learner facilitator. I think that's getting close to what you're asking? I do think that the emphasis on visitors as collaborators however is worthy of some further thought – certainly in my work around the virtual world that's one of the conclusions I'm coming to. I wonder if that will then manifest itself in the physical museum sense? I alluded to this in my thesis but am currently doing further research into these ideas. We had an initial discussion about this on the fresh+new(er) blog.

I also found that exhibitions impacted on visitors' learning identities in various ways, with some becoming even more convinced about how they did not want to learn in a museum after visiting a specific exhibition.

For those of you interested, more details about Museum Revolutions can be found on the University of Leicester website.

Thanks again Jay and love your work!

Research on Discovery Centres

This question from Claire Baddeley a PhD student from University of Canberra:

I'm currently undertaking a PhD on the history, development, philosophy and management of 'Discovery Centres' at Australian museums. The project aims to investigate the role of 'Discovery Centres' in Australian museums, their purpose, and how they contribute (or don't contribute) to the visitor's museum 'experience'. The research aims to look at 'discovery centres' as a microcosm reflecting contemporary issues faced by museums (such as those regarding access, education/learning, use of collections & technology and operating as 'hybrid' organizations, combining not for profit and private sector roles). Given this, the main focus of the research is on 'discovery centres' as an aspect of the operation and role of museums in the 21st century.

I am writing to you to enquire as to whether you may be aware of any research or studies that have been undertaken on 'discovery centres' in museums (in relation to audiences)? There seems to be little written about what does and doesn't occur in 'discovery centres' in relation to audiences, why they are becoming increasingly popular in museums and how 'success' is measured in these centres (beyond visitor numbers, of course!). Any advice, suggestions or details of researchers/museum staff to contact that you could provide me would be much appreciated.

Claire, I know that Moya McFadyen from Museum Victoria did a world-wide tour of discovery centres. Her report is really worth reading (I'll give you her email details separately). At the Australian Museum I have done several studies of our popular search & discover which clearly demonstrates that visitors of all ages and type love these kinds of spaces and appreciate the role they have in learning. Regarding their popularity in museums, to me it is about museum staff finally responding to research and theoretical perspectives about how people learn. No longer do visitors want passive experiences where they are told stuff (actually they never really did!). Visitors consistently say they want choice and control over their visit experiences and discovery centre models meet these needs very well. Go here for some papers on museum learning and to this wiki for my thesis on museum visitors' learning.

Another place to talk to is CSIRO Discovery in Canberra. I was quite impressed with most of it when I visited in May this year and they may have undertaken some research during their planning.

There is also a Case study of The Discovery Room by Judith White at the Smithsonian on the ExhibitFiles website. Seeing this reminded me of a my favourite museum quote ever – too long to reproduce here so the reference is Skramstad, H. (1999). An Agenda for American Museums in the Twenty-First Century. Daedalus, 128(3) and look at pages 113-114.

Other ideas or leads anyone?