Issues

AMARC has been involved in several projects relating to a variety of museum issues as well as grant-funded research projects.

• Writing Text and Labels
• Audience Research for Regional and Small Museums
• Collections and Visitors
• Using Computer Interactives
• Exhibitions as Contested Sites: The Role of Museums in Contemporary Society

Writing Text and Labels

This document provides an overview of visitor behaviour, exhibition and text development based on a literature review. Useful guidelines for writing text and labels, and a reference list are also included.

• Writing Text and Labels (PDF 145k)

Audience Research for Regional and Small Museums

In August 2002 Lynda Kelly presented a workshop on audience research for small museums at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery, Coffs Harbour, as part of the Museums and Galleries Foundation Seminar called Meeting the Audience. Her paper covered issues such as what audience research is, how to conduct audience research projects and methods. A range of other resources for small and regional museums has also been sourced.

Further information

• Audience Research for Regional and Small Museums (PDF 147k)
• Audience Research Reading List (PDF 87k)
• Exhibition Evaluation (PDF 136k)
• AMOL Online resources for Regional and Small Museums
  http://amol.org.au/craft/regional_mus/reg_mus_index.asp
• Tracking and Observation (PDF 444k)

Collections and Visitors

A paper presented by Lynda Kelly at the 1999 Museums Australia Annual Conference, looked at three aspects of developing access to collections:

1. What does 'access to collections' really mean?
2. Advantages and disadvantages of open collections.
3. Assessing user needs through three research studies that have addressed this issue.

• Developing access to collections through assessing user needs (PDF 164k)

Using Computer Interactives

A student project studying the use of computer interactives in museums through a literature review and a pilot set of interviews with visitors using interactives in the Museum's Biodiversity exhibition was undertaken in 1999.

• Summary of literature (PDF 103k)

Issues documents are only available in PDF format. The FREE Acrobat Reader is required. If you have trouble accessing the PDFs on this page, please email Lynda Kelly.