A Place for Kids? The Public Image of Natural History Museums

Scholars, commentaries, guide books, and people “on the street” seem to agree and take for granted that natural history museums are mainly aimed at children. Nevertheless, no studies have specifically investigated the public image of natural history museums. In this study, we provide quantitative evidence that natural history museums are indeed seen by the public as being primarily aimed at children and families with children, and we discuss the consequences that this fact has for the potential role that natural history museums could have in promoting science literacy and for the perception of science in general.     

Web Services As Public Services: Are We Supporting Our Busiest Service Point?

This article is an analysis of academic library organizational culture, patterns, and processes as they relate to Web services. Data gathered in a research survey is examined in an attempt to reveal current departmental and administrative attitudes, practices, and support for Web services in the library research environment.     

Giving the “Viewser” a Voice? Situating the Individual in Relation to Personalization,Narrowcasting, and Public Service Broadcasting

This article undertakes a critical comparison of contemporary personalization practices on Web platforms such as YouTube and Facebook with long-established practices of narrowcasting. Though such platforms appear to adhere to goals of universality similarly adhered to by public service broadcasting (PSB), the implementation of personalization on these platforms proves problematic to their discursive positioning as free “public” services. Furthermore, though public service broadcasters have embraced personalization in the name of pluralism, critics suggest that the narrowcasting inherent in personalization exists in tension to PSB's enduring commitments. Finally, the article argues that system-initiated personalization negates the “consumer sovereignty” that narrowcasting has traditionally mobilized.     

Play and Children's Museums: A Path Forward or a Point of Tension?

Play is a central, defining concept for children's museums, yet it's become a hot button issue which is problematic if play is what makes children's museums uniquely valuable. In this article, members of the Children's Museum Research Network share findings from their first research study, focused on elucidating the problem of play in children's museums. Results suggest that children's museums may not have shared definitions and conceptualizations of play.     

COMMENTARY: Sports Broadcasting: Is it a Job for Public Service Broadcasters?-A Welfare Economic Perspective

The current policy of European public service broadcasters (PSBs) of acquiring expensive sports rights does not correspond with welfare economic principles. The Listed Events regulation prevents sports events of major importance for society from migrating to pay-TV broadcasters. Handing over expensive sports programs to commercial rivals will release resources that can be used on other activities, including programs that have characteristics of externalities and merit goods. Such a policy has been adopted by Australian PSBs.     

Public libraries and blind people: what kind of relationship?

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Learning in Children's Museums: Is It Really Happening?

This study examined what children learn while they are interacting with exhibits at a children's museum as well as the conditions that facilitate learning. Using naturalistic observations to get information on the kinds of observable learning that occurred in a variety of settings within the museum, the study found that much observable learning did occur and that different contexts supported different kinds and amounts of learning. Learning was more likely to occur with adult interaction than without, and certain types of exhibits invited more adult involvement than others. Examples of learning of relatively higher levels of cognitive complexity and higher degrees of generalizability were observed more rarely than examples of learning of lower complexity and less generalizability. Implications for children's museums and other settings of informal learning are discussed.     

Do Museums Change Lives?: Ninth Stephen Weil Memorial Lecture

No museum is actually “neutral,” ever. This article presents the keynote address presented at the annual conference of the International Committee on Museum Management (INTERCOM) and of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM). In it, the author lays out the provocative case that museums not only are not, but should not be “neutral” when it comes to issues of human rights and social justice. Museums need not present both sides of every argument, or retain a lofty academic tone when it comes to the injustices of the present and the past. As an alternative course, the author presents a framework published by the British Museums Association, entitled Museums Change Lives, which offers a vision for museums to engage with challenging topics. He then offers a series of examples where Museums have embraced a new role as a promoter of social good.     

The Library–Information Technology Partnership: Challenges and Solutions

ABSTRACT

The Klarchek Information Commons is a collaboration between Loyola University Libraries and Information Technology Services (ITS). The Information Commons has been open almost 2 years and was in the planning stages for almost 2 years before its grand opening in January 2008. During that period the library and ITS have learned how to work together to successfully operate this new service hub on campus. In this article, the authors look at the challenges faced by the two groups and how they resolved problems and faced the challenges inherent in running a large, complex, service-oriented organization.     

Prevention of Substance Abuse: Can Museums Make a Difference?

After declining during the 1980s, use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is again rising in junior and senior high schools nationwide. A field-trip program developed at the Hall of Health (HOH) in Berkeley, California, attempts to reverse or lessen this trend by communicating in a museum setting the dangers of drugs and addiction. Pre-visit and post-visit surveys collected from 823 students in fifth through eighth grade showed the HOH program had an immediate, significant impact on statements of intent to use alcohol, tobacco, diet pills, downers, and inhalants as well as illegal drugs in high school. Two weeks after the field trip in a follow-up study of 172 students, those who initially intended to experiment with drugs still showed a significant reduction in their original intent (as indicated in their pre-visit survey) to use 12 of 15 drugs. The program may serve as a model for museums desirous of reversing the trend toward drug use by young people.