Evaluation

This weeks readings on evaluation was a rather dry topic. Discussing evaluation practices and analytical tools such as Google Analytics can be a very boring topic. That being said, this is a very important aspect of both physical and digital museums and exhibits. Understanding how visitors are using the exhibit and what they understand to be the point of the exhibit is very important. For my Museum Studies course this semester with Dr. Crew, he had us do a short survey on our proposed exhibit to help shape the final project. It was very informative and helpful in shaping my final idea for both my project in that class as well as this class. This type of analysis is just as important, if not more so, in helping form a great, educational exhibit.

The four imperatives introduced in Hallie Preskill’s article “Museum Evaluation without Borders” seemed very much straight forward. Preskill’s first imperative is obvious. If the curator of an exhibit is not creating the exhibit with an end goal in mind there is very little point to the creation. The outcome and the impact are the most important part of the exhibit and if that is ignored at the inception, the exhibit will not turn out as expected. One imperative that she introduced seemed like a great concept however that I would like to see implemented more often. Thinking positively instead of negatively is a great way to improve not just the exhibit, but the team as well.

Oral History

In my HIST 610 class I argued the very unpopular view that oral history is best used and understood when listening to the actual words or seeing the video of the interviewee. The full context of the interview cannot be fully understood by simply reading the transcript. While it may be easier to use the transcript for research purposes, too much emotion can be lost in the cold transcription process. The subject’s facial expressions and emotional pauses simply disappear in the change from audio/visual to text. The downside to using the audio or video of the interview, however, is large. It is not searchable and therefore takes far too long to quickly look through to get to the needed portion of the interview. For this purpose, a transcript does work well, but my reservations about the emotional connection in the transcript still stand. The greatest thing about the Oral History Metadata System is the fact that with this system, the video and audio of an oral history interview become just as usable. OHMS integrates the audio/visual portion with the text. Making the text searchable and linking it to the correct time within the recording greatly increases the usability of the recording. This allows the researcher to quickly find what he or she needs in the transcript, see if it pertains to their topic, and then listen to/watch the recorded version of the interview so as to more fully grasp the emotions of the interviewee. This system is a wonderful tool for oral history and I look forward to seeing it’s use expanded outside of the Kentucky Digital Library and with many more oral history projects to come.

I found the Oral History in the Digital Age website to be a wonderful tool for oral historians or anyone interested in conducting an oral history interview. The site provides beginners with answers to questions such as “What should I consider as I begin planning an oral history project?” and “Should I use digital audio or video?” The answers to these questions, and many more, provide the aspiring oral historian with the building blocks to curate great oral history content.

 

Curating the Landscape

This week’s readings focused on creating mobile applications that allow the user to take a museum anywhere with them. These apps and sites bring history to life in the middle of a modern city. With sites such as Cleveland Historical, PhilaPlace, and Hidden Histories of the National Mall, users are able to see history come to life all around them. I absolutely love all of these sites. As a history nerd, whenever I am walking around somewhere, I often wonder if anything of historical significance happened at the building I’m looking at or the park I’m in. It is fun to imagine how people who lived long before I was born viewed the place in which I am standing. What buildings were there that are now gone? What did a certain area look like 50 years ago? These questions are constantly on my mind throughout the day. These websites answer my questions which is great! Having these sites as a mobile app allows the user to take the history with them wherever they go. This ability allows for museums to be stored in anyone’s pocket and easily accessible whenever they wish to use it. This enables museums to be more accessible than having to travel to a physical museum and deal with the traffic, parking, admission price or any other hassles.

PhilaPlace is particularly exciting in it’s ability to overlay historical photographs on an area the user is currently viewing. This allows the user to see the history all around them which is very exciting. Seeing how a building or area looked years ago as compared to now makes history come to life. The viewer can be fully in the present while fully understanding the past.

The incorporation of oral histories into Cleveland Historical is wonderful. “Listening and the human voice, in particular, evoke place in visceral and profound ways. Human voice call forth memory, time, and context: they provide interpretive dimensions…Listening to human voices on a mobile device allow users to experience memory within the landscapes where the stories were lived.” Oral histories provide a context for the viewer. By listening to stories about a market while in that market, or in a park while in that park, allows the user to understand the historical significance of that area and understand what it was like years ago. This is huge. The entire city becomes a museum allowing the user to explore the city in a new way, going deeper than the residential or commercial buildings they see around them, and allowing them to understand the history of those buildings.

It would be exciting to be able to incorporate this technology into my own project. Providing oral histories from child soldiers while the user was standing on the battlefield in which that soldier fought or being able to overlay a photo of that battlefield in the 1860s provides a deeper context to the area in which the user is standing. Unfortunately, this requires computer expertise that goes beyond my current understanding. Curating the landscape is a particularly exciting endeavor and one that I hope continues to grow.

Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections

This weeks readings were very interesting as they allowed me to see the evolution of archival methods and how much has changed just in the past 25 years. Archival Methods by David Bearman was a good look at how archives were run at the beginning of the digital age. Bearman was obviously hesitant to accept any change to any sort of digital format, and rightly so. The essays were written while digital technologies was still a relatively new source. For anyone in the late 1980s to think that the majority of archives would switch to digital scanners and databases would be presumptuous and met with more than a little hostility. In the conclusion to Chapter V, Bearman described the foreseeable change well as “both a boon and a threat to future access” but admits that archivists and archives must be open to the change since that is the nature of the work. This is a great outlook on adopting new technologies. While everything has its pros and cons, one must always be open to the fact that something new might have more pros than cons and might dramatically improve the way things were done in the past. Not every new technology needs to be embraced with open arms, however. There have been many inventions predicted to change the world that quickly blinked out of existence. Looking at new ways to approach the work means being open to the new and improved. 

In contrast to Bearman’s essays which focused more on the physical collections, “Creating the Next Generation of Archival Finding Aids” by Elizabeth Yakel, Seth Shaw, and Polly Reynolds focused on creating a digital database. Their discussions of the thought process behind the digital archives was very insightful. Section 6 on incorporating social navigational was particularly interesting. By investigating the use of traditional paper finding aids used in libraries and archives, the creators were able to incorporate and improve upon navigational techniques that researchers were used to seeing in physical databases. The use of commenting and collaborative filtering, especially the use of the Amazon tagline, were great ways to help researchers find exactly what they were looking for in the large digital database. I spent some time exploring the Polar Bear Expedition Database and found the site a bit clunky and hard to navigate, however. At one point I had to navigate through 6 different pages to view one single photograph. I was also reminded of the readings in Don’t Make Me Think when I saw the “Bookbag” tag. It took me a second to realize that was the bookmark feature mentioned in the article. Once I realized what it was I found that feature very useful. I understand the creators wanted to draw the image of going to a traditional library and putting the books you checkout into your bookbag. While this is cute, it did make me think and by changing that title to the more commonly used term “bookmark”, they could save their visitors some agitation. 

The integration of digital technologies in exhibits is a rapidly growing, but rapidly misunderstood or misused, medium. Nearly every museum exhibit across the country has some sort of digital integration with their physical exhibits. Whether it be touch screen tablets, videos, smart phone apps, or digital tours on the museum’s website. Whichever medium the digital exhibit takes, it must be a collaborative effort between the museum curators and the visitors. A give and take must be involved in the digital exhibit. The museum must be open to listening to the needs and desires of their visitors, while the visitors must be open to learning and trying new things and giving valuable feedback to the museum about the exhibit. Feedback is essential to any exhibit, digital or physical.

The QRator app is the perfect example of integrating the digital with the physical. By placing iPads around the exhibit and giving visitors a chance to answer questions and add to the discussion it made the visitors feel special and helped them learn and engage with the material. This engagement leads to deeper conversations and a deeper understanding of the physical exhibit around them.

The concept of “radical trust” was a very interesting point made in the article “Enhancing Museum Narratives with the QRator Project: a Tasmanian devil, a Platypus and a Dead Man in a Box”.

Radical trust is about trusting the community. We know that abuse can happen, but we trust (radically) that the community and participation will work. In the real world, we know that vandalism happens but we still put art and sculpture up in our parks. As an online community we come up with safeguards or mechanisms that help keep open contribution and participation working. (Fichter, 2006)

This radical trust is a huge deal. I have worked in multiple exhibits where visitors are enabled with this trust and break it. I have also seen this radical trust work in numerous, invaluable ways. I have seen visitors deliberately and violently break iPads, pulling them from their wall mounts and cracking the screens. I have also seen visitors spend hours in and exhibit, interacting with the interactive and digital exhibits, the staff, and other visitors while engaging with the topic on a deeper level that allows even the most knowledgeable of the staff leave with new ideas and an enlivened sense of their job. This radical trust is a huge part of museum work and should not be taken lightly. While often my opinion of the visiting public has been negative and harsh, the trust cannot be taken away or the museum will never work and productive interactivity with the visitors will never take place.

Social Media and Digital Strategy

The use of social media technologies in digital history and museums is a great tool. “Social Media and Organizational Change” gives great insight into the use of social media in museum settings. Museums and historical sites have made great strides in becoming more relevant in today’s digital age through the use of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and e-newsletters. Through the use of sites such as Twitter and Facebook, museums and historic sites are able to provide their visitors with up to date information regarding events, changes in operating hours, new exhibits, or any other information they feel may be relevant to visitors. They can further reach their visitor base by linking their Twitter and Facebook pages on their websites. This inclusion of up to date information across multiple platforms helps keep their visitors informed and allows visitors to feel more at ease when planning their visit. 

There is a lot more involved in creating digital content then just the use of social media. Creating digital content is highly collaborative and must take place cross-departmentally. By involving people from many different departments a better range of talent, authority, expertise, and age creates a well rounded group involved in the creating process. This creation does not happen over night, however. Many smaller museums and historic sites may not have the staff numbers or the money to create something that can stand up to large museum caliber work. This is where social media, and the many free forms it takes, comes in handy. Since the majority of social media sites are free and very easy to use and understand, it is very useful for the smaller organizations. While great digital content may not be easily put forth from these platforms, it is still a wonderful tool to use for those with few technical skills and a small budget. Even by using WordPress, great content can be provided for potential visitors through the use of blogs and the integration of Twitter. Digital content does not have to be expensive or fancy to draw visitors in. It just has to be informative and easy to use, which is why social media is such a great way to provide content to the public. 

Community Participation

This week’s readings focused on community participation which is a topic I am very passionate about. The readings and websites this week were extremely engaging and piqued my interest as to how to push the limits of audience participation in a museum setting. The Participatory Museum by Nina Simon was a great read on this subject. Part 2 of the book (chapters 5-11), was especially intriguing as it focused on how to involve visitors in museums in a participatory setting. The case studies noted in these chapters worked well to show how the implementation of these interactive features work with visitors, staff, and the community. Simon gives examples such as Investigating Where We Live at the National Building Museum which invites local teenagers to create an exhibit about their neighborhood and The Tech Virtual Test Zone at The Tech Museum, while unfortunately frustrating for the participants and the staff, it invited participants to use Second Life to create a museum exhibit that could be built in the museum in real life. These examples, plus the multitude of others mentioned throughout the book, show how well, and sometimes frustrating, the implementation of participatory elements in a museum setting can work. While the inclusion of visitor participation might not always be the most efficient or the best way to build museum exhibits, the participatory element helps make the visitor feel included and valued throughout the entirety of the work. Children of the Lodz Ghetto in the Holocaust Museum is a great example of this. Visitors were invited to help research what happened to the children of that ghetto. While only one third of the data collected was viable and the work may have been done much quicker by museum staff, the work helped the volunteers to feel included in the museum and helped them feel emotionally engaged in the history of the Holocaust.

I have always felt that the best museums are the ones that invite guest to be a participant in the exhibits they are viewing. Just walking through museums and reading signs is a very cold interaction that makes the visitor feel more like they are in school than in a social, educational, and inviting environment. Allowing guests to participate in what they are viewing and learning helps to engage them on a deeper level and allows them to feel more included in what they are seeing; more engaged and less lectured to. Websites like the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank and DIY History invite people to become a participant in the history. I love sites like these because it encourages visitors to participate and provide content of their own. I spent a considerable amount of time on these sites and, having worked in archives in the past, I thoroughly enjoyed transcribing parts of the documents. Participatory physical and digital exhibits are essential to museums and history. Engaging visitors and allowing them to provide content is the best way to help the public feel at home in a museum setting.

Site Evaluation: National Museum of Natural History

For my site evaluation I decided to visit the National Museum of Natural History. I’ve never really been a fan of natural history because I am not much of a science person, but I decided to stretch myself a bit with this visit. The museum is very interactive, which I thoroughly enjoy, and I had fun going to the different stations to see how well the interactive elements work for the visitors. There were also questions posted throughout the Ocean Hall for kids to answer and to help them engage with the exhibits they were exploring. The museum was very kid and family friendly with a lot of things to keep the kids engaged while the parents can enjoy the educational experience the museum provides.

The FossiLab in the dinosaur wing was a great way to engage the public. Unfortunately, during my visit it was not in use, but I got the sense that it was a very popular exhibit and much loved by the visitors. Visitors are able to observe the paleontologists at work as they clean and conserve the fossils. Visitors are also able to ask the paleontologists questions as they work so as to better learn what exactly is entailed in working with the fossils. The interactivity with the public does not end when the visitors walk away from the FossiLab, however. The National Museum of Natural History website provides more information about the projects being worked on in the FossiLab as well as more in depth information on the tools used to clean the fossils. While the information provided on the website is very interesting and informative, it still feels as thought it is lacking. A live feed of the paleontologists at work would be a great way to show students in a classroom or interested visitors what is happening when they are not at the museum in person to observe the work. There are good videos on the site that show how some of the tools work and the work being done to uncover a brontothere skull but these videos are rather boring and do not help the visitor feel engaged with what they are seeing.

A very good, but very small, exhibit in the Ocean Hall was Portraits of Planet Ocean: The Photography of Brian Skerry. Although it is a very small exhibit, it offers great insight into what life is like in the ocean. With beautiful pictures and video taken by Skerry, the exhibit is a gorgeous addition to the Ocean Hall. I was not even aware of just how much the public was involved in this exhibit until I looked on the website.  Visitors were asked to vote on which of Skerry’s photographs they would like to see in the exhibit. But more than just voting on the photos, the visitors could comment on the photo and see more information about the marine life in the photo. With 4,511 votes 92 different countries this voting process was a great way to involve the guests in creating a new exhibit for the museum. Visitors are even asked to submit their own ocean photos to the museum’s Flickr page. In the coming months, Skerry and museum curators will choose the best photos from the Flickr page to be displayed in the museum as well as on the Smithsonian’s Ocean Portal page. By submitting and voting on photos, the public becomes greatly involved in the process of creating the exhibit. It helps them feel included and helps them have a voice in the museum itself. Every photograph submitted to the Flickr page is beautiful and would be a great addition to the exhibit.

The new temporary exhibit Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code was a great interactive experience. With museum employees posted everywhere to answer questions and engage with visitors, the exhibit offered a very educational experience about the Human Genome Project and the ability to map human genomes. But while the physical exhibit was great and I spent a considerable amount of time in there, the Smithsonian’s digital website for the exhibit was terrible. I expected to find interactive games and more information. Instead the website is far out of date and says that the exhibit is opening on June 14, 2013, which was 8 months ago, and it is closing on September 1 of this year; only 7 months from now. This site needs a definite update to provide the visitor with better information on the exhibit. The website would be a great opportunity to provide and interactive format for teachers, students, and interested visitors to learn more about genome mapping. The website for the exhibit itself, rather than through the Smithsonian, is wonderful. It provides virtual interactive tours, animations, videos, tools for students, and more in depth explanations about genome mapping. The Smithsonian site, however, only provides a small link on the side of the page to the Unlocking Life’s Code website. I almost missed the link and would have missed out on a very well done, informative digital exhibit. The link should have been much larger, or the visitor should have been brought straight to the Unlocking Life’s Code website when clicking on the exhibit on the Smithsonian website.

Another very popular exhibit was the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins. The entrance to the exhibit hall is very well done as it provides a short introductory video on the evolution of humans. It also has an interesting light feature that helps to “transport” the visitor into the past and to the beginnings of human origins. While traveling throughout the exhibit, visitors learn about the origins of humanity in a linear time frame with small statues depicting the different stages of human evolution to give the visitor a good idea of what their ancestors would have looked like thousands of years ago. The entire exhibit is very interactive with stations to show the basics of the theory of evolution, a booth where visitors can see what they would have looked like as an early human, and stations where visitors can be put in charge of their own country and they must make decisions that work for the betterment of their country. This exhibit was by far my favorite and it also has the best digital presence out of any hall in the museum.

While the website does offer and interactive exhibit floor plan, it is less interactive and more informational. A visitor may click on a certain section of the exhibit and is provided with a few facts of what to expect in that section of the exhibit. The digital floor plan could be much better if they offered a short video tour or more pictures of that section of the exhibit. The website also poses a question to visitors: What does it mean to be human? The answers guests provide may be posted to the hall’s twitter page as well as on the website itself. This offers guests a great way to feel included in the museum. The website also provides an interactive human evolution timeline and an interactive human family tree. One very important aspect of both the physical and digital exhibits was that both addressed the issue of religion and evolution. The interplay of these two ideas is a very big problem for many in the religious community. By addressing this fact up front and providing more information on this topic, the museum staff helps to ease the tensions felt by many of their religious visitors. What could potentially be a large problem for many guests is dealt with in a tactful, educational way that helps address the concerns of the visitor. Overall the website is very interactive, informative, educational, and user friendly.

Audience, Accessibility, and Informal Education

The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Lives by Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen was a great look into how history impacts the lives of everyday Americans. Most people do not think of history on a daily, or probably even a weekly, basis. It is not a subject that many people think of as important to everyday life. This book, however, shows just how much history can impact people’s personal lives. History can influence people in ways they’ve never though of before. Encountering history doesn’t just have to happen when visiting a museum or historic sight or when reading a book on history or watching a Ken Burns documentary. History is all around us and we all encounter it on a daily basis whether we realize it or not. Throughout the book I was struck by just how many people felt a connection to the past. Not just through history classes but through their family, church, hobbies, and so on. Everyone felt a connection to the past in some way shape or form, even if they didn’t realize it. History is all around us in everything we do. The past influences who we are. Without the past we would not have the present. This book was very interesting in that it was not a typical history book but instead was a collection of personal stories that discussed history in a much more personal way. I enjoyed this book for that fact alone. History, both personal and cultural, can leave a lasting impact on our lives. 

“Thinking Like a Historian” by Sam Wineburg was a great read. I have encountered numerous people like the student, Kevin, mentioned in this article. The majority of people I talk to about history think of it as boring and a useless list of facts they had to memorize for a class and then promptly forgot. Many of the people interviewed in The Presence of the Past felt the same way. Getting students to think like a historian is the perfect way to teach history. Most students never encountered that sort of teaching until undergrad but by implementing this style of teaching in high schools and middle schools more students can come to learn that history is much more than a bunch of facts. Whenever anyone tells me they think history is boring I always immediately ask “Do you like television shows or movies? Do you like reading books or listening to someone’s stories?” Without fail the answer to at least one of the questions is always yes. To which I always reply, “Then you can learn to like history.” To me history is not a collection of useless facts, but is the compilation of millions of personal stories. That is what makes studying history so much fun for me and why my goal in life is to make to study of history fun and exciting for others. That is also what makes Hollywood so much money with movies like Saving Private Ryan and Titanic so successful. While they may not be entirely historically accurate, they still touch on that part of history that is exciting to learn about: the personal stories rather than the facts. Teaching students to think like historians engages them with the past. They can start to see themselves as detectives and start to engage with the subject on a deeper level. This is the perfect way to reach the next generation of historians. 

I loved looking through the Smithsonian’s History Explorer. Since I am a huge fan of interactive history this site was great. I enjoyed playing some of the games and watching some of the videos. They were wonderful and I couldn’t help but wish I had known about this site when I was younger. It is a great way to get students involved with history; exploring and learning outside of the classroom but also with great lessons and activities for teachers to help further engage their students. This is a wonderful site that I will definitely explore further.

I enjoyed the readings this week. Both Historians in Public and History’s Babel were very interesting to read as an aspiring public historian. Seeing the evolution of the historical profession not in terms of historiography but rather in terms of the changing job market showed how much the profession has changed just in the past hundred years. There is such a wide range of jobs for historians that thinking of historians just as professors and teachers cuts off a whole host of jobs in which historians can be employed. I love seeing the different ways in which historians can interact with the public. Whether it be at the National Parks Service, the National Archives, through movies, television, or radio, or on a college campus or museum site, historians do not have to be confined to one specific aspect of the profession. 

The article “Defining Public History: Is It Possible? Is It Necessary?” by Robert Weible shows just how wide the disparity is when defining public history. Weible makes the statement, “When all is said and done, public history may even be like jazz or pornography: easier to describe than define, and you know it when you hear it or see it.” This is a great explanation of public history. I have spent a lot of time trying to explain to family and friends what exactly public history is when they ask what I want to do with my history degree. Most often assume I want to teach and previously had no idea that public history even exists as a profession. While public history may be hard to define, it has changed the way professional historians, and even the subject of history itself, is viewed by the public at large. No longer are historians confined to libraries or the classroom. Historians can exist anywhere: at historical sites and museums, for private companies or in government agencies.