The Manual of Museum Learning

This manual is a practical guide to creating successful learning experiences in museums and related institutions such as public galleries, exhibition centers, science centers, zoos, botanical gardens, aquaria, and planetaria. Based on an understanding of museum learning as an experience that occurs within a personal, social, and physical context, it explores why, for whom, and how these contexts can be orchestrated in museum galleries with optimal results.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Preface, with Acknowledgments Part 2 I. WHY: The Rationale for Museum Learning Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 1. Museums, Lifelong Learning, and Civil Society Chapter 5 2. What Is Museum-based Learning? Chapter 6 3. The Potential of Museum Learning-The Essential Museum Part 7 II. WHO: Participants in Museum Learning Chapter 8 Introduction Chapter 9 4. Families and Children Challenging Museums Chapter 10 5. New Relationships with the Formal Education Sector Chapter 11 6. Involving the Community: The Museum as Forum for Dialogue and Learning Part 12 III. HOW: Resources for Museum Learning Chapter 13 Introduction Chapter 14 7. The Centrality of Museum Educators: Organizing and Budgeting for Museum Learning Chapter 15 8. Space and Facilities for Museum Learning Chapter 16 9. Interpretive Planning and the Media of Museum Learning Chapter 17 10. Audience-Based Measures of Success: Evaluating Museum Learning Chapter 18 11. Marketing Museum Learning Chapter 19 12. Multiple Points of Reentry: The Challenge of Sustaining Participation in Museum Learning Chapter 20 Conclusion

About the Author :
Barry Lord is co-founder and director of Lord Cultural Resources Planning and Management, the world's largest firm specializing in the planning of museums and related cultural institutions.

Review :
Supplies practical information, such as where to find appropriate facilities, and how to evaluate success. Diplo: Towards more inclusive and effective diplomacy, February-March 2008 The Manual of Museum Learning offers insights and concrete suggestions based on current realities. The contributors provide perspectives of well-respected practitioners who offer both a solid basis for current practice, and support for new ideas to implement in the future. The high level of discourse delivers a manual that should be shared across the museum, not read only by those involved in programming or education. -- Lesia Davis, executive director of the Campbell River Museum, in Muse The writing aims to be practical...useful for those in museums to create more effective organizations. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. -- K. Marantz CHOICE