The Convergence of Museums and Libraries

Maeryta Medrano, AIA LEED AP, President, Gyroscope, Inc.


I've been interested in the convergence of museums and libraries since my grad school days at UC Berkeley. Some of the greatest examples can be found in Greek and Roman architecture where a museum and library were almost always paired together, often in conjunction with the forum, marketplace, and bath houses. These public places functioned together as the hub of civic life and a community gathering place.

Libraries, according to this article are seeing significant growth over the last few years, even though digitization has been replacing physical books. This statistic from the article is telling- "from 2002 to 2008 their ranks rebounded astonishingly, rising 7 percent among adults and 9 percent, the biggest growth, among teens, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. Moreover, public libraries in the United States have seen record usage, up 23 percent between 2006 and 2009, according to the American Library Association (ALA), partly due to the job-seeking resources they offer. So the future of libraries in a computerized world is potentially bright."

Some libraries, such as our client in Rancho Cucamonga, have taken it one step further by offering a place to record oral histories and activities for young children within the stacks. I know if my local library had these amenities, my family would take advantage of them and spend even more time there. As it is, we go almost every Saturday morning to check out books, videos, and sometimes magazines.

This summer, while in London on business, I spent hours at the British Library where I not only checked out a cool exhibit on maps, but also had an excellent lunch. Situated not too far from the stacks at a comfy couch with free wi-fi access, I emailed design ideas back to the office while enjoying a latte and a delicious chocolate torte. What's not to like? I'm hoping other libraries will pick up on the trend to include more programming, amenities, food, coffee and comfortable seating.

I would argue this trend is important for museums as well. Although many do offer some visitor amenities, the right mix of programming, technology, books, cool architecture and great coffee is a sure way to make patrons feel comfortable and engaged.

See the article below for the full story and reader’s comments.
http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/building_types_study/libraries/2011/Libraries-Intro.asp

Parent Communication Strategies

Justine Roberts, Principal

I wrote recently about how some museums are using technology to extend their relationships with constituents beyond the space and time of a visit. This is a strategy in service of a bigger goal, which has to do with positioning the museum as an ongoing resource for its audience – not just a place to go but a trusted advisor, friend, and information base.  This is a big strategic idea, and one that holds a lot of appeal.  On the one hand, it differentiates museums from the leisure time activities we often think of as their natural competition – city parks and playgrounds, the movies, music lessons, computer games, play groups etc.  On the other, it differentiates museums from out of school time and social service organizations like the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs. 

This is not a new idea – The Boston Children’s Museum has always spent a lot of time and care on community relationships.  Take for example programs like Countdown to Kindergarten which is as much about creating an activity for local families to celebrate a major life transition (kindgergarten), as it is about weaving the Museum into the fabric of the learning community (see their success in bringing the Mayor and Superintendent of Schools together, literally). 

BCM is actually a good segue for what I’m thinking about which is that adults are one of the key audiences for these on-going relationships with Children's Museums in particular.  As a field we increasingly understand that there are good reasons to move adults to more involved roles with their kids.  Research has shown that adult participation leads to deeper inquiry and more durable learning for children, while at the same time enhancing adults’ understanding of and ability to support children’s informal science learning.   

But let’s be honest - adults come to museums for many reasons, including taking a break and socializing with peers, and have their own learning styles.  So I am really intrigued by the idea that museums can develop umbrella relationships with adults in which the moment of the visit is one touch point among many opportunities to engage with the organization.  This might give us more room to allow that the visit may not always be the best moment to reach adults, but it also suggests that that’s okay because we have many more opportunities to connect with those adults.  We don’t have to pack it all into 2 hours on a Saturday.

How about these as goals for adults?

• Help adult visitors understand their possible roles, and responsibilities, in the museum setting
• Scaffold adults’ learning
• Show caregivers what their children are doing, but also how and why they behave in particular ways
• Help staff and visitors understand and share the ways children construct knowledge

The key to achieving these goals is to increase adults’ understanding of the museum as about learning. 

To do this, museums need to accomplish three main things (1) make children’s learning evident, (2) offer adults opportunities to participate in children’s learning, and (3) give adults tools they can use to enhance children’s learning.  Some of these may lend themselves more to implementation in the exhibits but all of them can happen off-site as well.

What should parent communications sound and look like?

Parent message need to be a mix of didactic, intimate and informal communications. Some parent communication will be explicit for adults who are interested in learning why the museum looks the way it does, and what their kids are getting out of the visit.  These “decoders” may take the form of maps, labels and graphics in the galleries, “parent guides” and questionnaires, or verbal communication through staff interaction. Other communication is more discursive and needs to be structured so that adults can make connections between the messages and their children’s behavior.

Here are 3 examples of how this might translate into graphics.

Staff at MCM carry these cards.

Pittsburgh Children's Museum projected graphics are in adults' immediate line of sight and provide a quick prompt.

An "exemplar" graphic from Skyline at CCM features photos of real visitors and first person quotes - the graphics stand in for staff by modeling adult roles in the gallery.

Strategies for use in the Museum 

These three examples of actual printed graphics get at some of the key strategies for adult communications during the museum visit.  They are designed to help adults see what their kids are doing and learning.  And they offer interpretation and explanation of the Museum's philosophy and intentions.

There are other strategies museums can use to facilitate adult outcomes including:

• Engage adults in collaborative work with their children and offer multiple possible roles for adults throughout the museum so that sometimes they are leading and other times they are supporting the primary inquiry.
• Train staff to articulate children’s learning to model interactions that support the expression of learning.
• Train staff to recognize adult learning in the museum setting and in how to support adults in gaining confidence and skill as partners in their children’s learning.     

More specifically, museums can: 

·      Design for the diverse needs of the adult audience, including participatory activity, quiet observation, and socializing with other adults.

·     Offer expert perspectives on informal science learning through partnerships with researchers and teachers in training.  Such as they do at MOS and BCM.  

·      Offer opportunities for adults to create documentation projects that facilitate children’s reflection on their own activity. 

·      Provide ideas for how adults might continue the inquiry and projects started in the Museum at home, and support visitors’ efforts to implement these suggestions through web-based, newsletter, and other resources.

Extending communication with parents beyond the visit

This last point takes me to the off-site long-term relationship piece.  One tenet of museum education is that a visit will continue to resonate in people’s lives long after they leave. Being a place to go when museum users have follow-up questions or comments is a piece of the way museums can extend their work beyond the walls of the building.  This support also allows adults to articulate and reflect on the connections they make between their lives and their Museum visit. Following are some ideas that are tuned to adults - easy to access, relevant, and helpful, fun, playful and participatory. So bridging this need with the right set of materials is a win-win.

1. Have an “Ask an Expert” email system that puts adults in touch with education and child development Graduate Students
2. Set up an email newsletter with a monthly Hot Tip that goes to visitors’ email, is displayed on the museum's home page, and is also included in the “hold” soundtrack on the phone.
3. Create a screen saver that people can download at home featuring images from around the Museum.
4. Create an interactive timeline that encourages adults and children to talk about events in their lives and to compare where they were and how they felt at those moments.  The timeline might be seeded with some starter ideas that span the generations and include both large global events as well as local, personal experiences.  Imagine The Mint Museum interactive site framed this way.

What has your museum tried? 

Nostalgia for Play

By Justine Roberts

Last weekend I participated in the NAREA conference.  It was a two-day event – the first part was a reception held at the DeCordova Museum, and the second was a full day workshop anchored by Lella Gandini, US liason for Reggio.  I was asked to be part of a panel titled “Nostalgia For the Future”.

Five amazing women from Wheelock College, Project Zero, Reggio and Lesley University were going to speak about how Reggio had helped shape their practice and then I, along with 4 other people, were going to respond.

Initially I was confused by the title of the session. How can you be nostalgic for something that hasn’t happened yet?  How do you hold the past and the potential both in your mind at the same time?  It is a kind of idea mash-up. Where it led me, ultimately, was to the transformative power of memory.  Memory can inform our actions in the present, and therefore shape what is to come.  Specifically, when talking about children and childhood those memories are about play: Play Memories. What kind of world would we imagine, and be working toward, if we remembered how serious our own childhood activity was and began to see the children around us through that lens? To step back, childhood is rapidly changing.  Among the people I talk to there is a sense that childhood used to be more:

• more connected to nature
• freer and less cautious
• more physical
• more dangerous (in a good way)
• messier
• more open to possibility

The implication is that today’s children are growing up in a culture that is less able to prepare them for their futures.  In the museum field we believe our organizations add critical value to their communities. One way they do this is to preserve key childhood experiences and make them available to all.  Museums are the antidote to this sense of loss. I like the idea that children’s museums can somehow offer experiences that are relevant across generations and cultures - somehow essential to childhood.  And I think we summarize this idea of a critical ingredient that must be nurtured in children’s lives as PLAY.  That’s a tricky word since many people think of play as disorganized and purposeless. It is easier to talk about play through examples than in the abstract.  But it might be even more powerful to talk about play through an act of memory.  Imagine if adults though about the nostalgia they have for their own childhoods as a gift they could give to the next generation?

I have done an exhibit on play memories, although it was small. That exhibit, part of Go Kids at the Chicago Children’s Museum, uses smell as a trigger to induce adults to share stories from their childhoods with their children.  Children don’t always understand that adults used to be small!  So this component builds connections in both directions: adults relate their childhoods to the children in their lives today, while children develop a new connection with the adults who share their lives. 

Children’s and science museums are increasingly embracing adults as an audience in and of itself – not just as chaperones, or as a captured audience we might as well provide content for - as a central element of the museum visit, and of the child’s learning experience both at the museum and at home.  We need to ask what adults in this setting need and want.  And possibly we will find that reminding adults what the magical, not quite rational world of childhood feels like is a powerful bridge to understanding, appreciation, and partnership with the children in their lives.

Children's Museums & Libraries: Case Studies [part 5]

[Justine Roberts, posting]

In this series I mentioned that there are some existing Experience Libraries that make use of the museum model, and there are also some existing Library/Museum partnerships. Here is a quick look at some of those. Many are not specifically with a children’s museum and all have varying degrees of collaboration.

• Cerritos Library, Cerritos, CA: This 88,000 sq. ft. public library has museum-like features throughout to encourage exploration. It showcases a permanent art collection, large dinosaurs in the children’s room, a green screen interactive, and changing exhibits. After opening the Library saw a 50% increase in circulation.

• Broward County Children’s Reading Center, FL: Not yet open, this building will combine a reading center run with the new 40,000 sq. ft. home of Young At Art. There will be a shared lobby, staff space and multi-purpose space. The partnership is based on the premise that art and literacy go hand-in-hand.

• Las Vegas-Clark County Library, NV: This Antoine Predock building houses the downtown public library branch and the Lied Discovery Museum. The museum rents the first floor from the library, which lives on the second floor. Although planned as a joint facility, the two organizations function completely separately.

• Hemphill Branch Library, Greensboro, NC: This project is based on the idea that early exposure to art benefits learning. The building contains a 15,000 sq. ft. library that contains a drop-in hands-on art studio for children run by the Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art. Library staff are cross-trained in running the art studio and the library hosts Green Hill at no charge.

• ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center, Charlotte, NC: ImaginOn is a partnership between the Public Library and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. The two organizations have a shared programmatic mission of bringing stories to life and exciting young minds. The building is fully shared by both organizations. In addition they have joint staff that manage facilities, exhibits, and programs.

• Highland Sam J. Racadilo Library and Environmental Learning Center, Highland, CA: This library specializes in environmental education. It features a zone with rescued animals, an outdoor classroom, a laboratory and a rooftop garden with native plants. Funding from the EPA allowed them to purchase a collection of books on environmental topics. In addition to story times they host “critter times” and educational programs.

• Queens Borough Public Library, Jamaica, NY: Keep your eyes open for a public announcement by this library sometime in late Spring/early Summer of 2010 about their Science in the Stacks partnership with the Exploratorium. It is NSF funded and promises to combine interactives with books in a new way.

Let us know if you have come across others!

Children's Museums & Libraries IV: what does a blended model look like?

[Justine Roberts, posting]

So what does a blended model that incorporates a library and a children’s museum together, under one umbrella organization, look like? What distinguishes it from stand-alone children’s museums or libraries?

1. By offering many modes of learning – cognitive, kinesthetic, constructive, social, experiential etc. – the blended model can support a diverse range of learners with different strengths and levels of development.
2. It can encourage families to learn together in a joyful, active environment and set the stage for a lifelong love of learning. And it can continue to serve families and individuals as their needs and skills change.
3. In providing a place to practice positive learning behaviors it supports the development of core building blocks of learning that underlie basic habits of mind and set children up for success as lifelong learners.
4. By extending the resources of the library into a hands-on environment, and continuing the tradition where any question can be asked and investigated, a blended model can connect children’s playful learning with adult interests in the world.
5. The ability to cross-pollinate ideas and share materials adds new functionality to traditional library services.
6. Information on public interests and trends collected by the Library through circulation patterns, e.g., can dynamically inform activities and exhibit themes.

There are probably other Strategies that might help to articulate this blended model. If you are thinking of one, please let me know.

Children's Museums & Libraries Part 3: what's in it for them?

[Justine Roberts Guest Posting]

So what’s in it for a children’s museum? Why would a children’s museum want to be part of a library? I worked my way to an answer by looking at where libraries and children’s museums are different:

• Children’s museums have high activity levels and tolerate noise and mess. They often have technology, loose parts, and require skilled maintenance. Libraries are quiet. They have many cues telling parents that noise and physical activity only belongs in children’s rooms. This points to underlying differences in culture, training, and experience.
• They have different patterns of use and operating hours. Librariyy circulation picks up in the evening. They are closed on holidays, during school vacations, and often on Sundays. Children’s Museums are at their peak during holidays, vacations and on weekends and are usually closed by 5pm.
• Libraries don’t often have development or marketing departments. Instead, they typically have an MOU with the City that covers space, utilities, technical support, maintenance, and buildings and grounds. Museums might wish for a city safety net, but it’s a trade-off with their diversified funding model and experience raising capital and operating money.

Together, a library and a children’s museum functioning as a single organization might be open from 9am-9pm, and offer different services at different times of day. They might combine City funding with grant-writing and annual campaigns and even have an endowment. They could be designed to provide activities for families while maintaining areas for quiet, focused, learning for adults.

Bottom line is a blended model might be more flexible, serve a broader audience, and lead to a more robust funding model than would be possible as a stand-alone organization.

Children's Museums & Libraries: part deux

[Justine Roberts Guest Posting]

In my first post on the potential of blending libraries and children’s museums at their root I focused on some of what children’s museums offer libraries. Beyond the common ground in their missions, children’s museums seem to meet a strategic need in the library community.

In addition, one of my take-aways has been about the role children’s museums can play in community-wide discussions about families and children. Other organizations may work with these audiences on similar goals, but don’t understand multi-sensory, exploratory experiences. By incorporating the expertise of children’s museums into a library, the library is able to raise awareness about the needs of families, and how children learn, in a new way.

This kind of blending offers a compelling vision for how the children’s museum model can inform out-of-school time learning and continue to spread the message of playful learning.

But what can libraries offer children’s museums? This will be the topic of my next post.

Children's Museums & Libraries? [5 part series]

[Justine Roberts Guest Posting]

I have heard of libraries and children’s museums partnering on programs, sharing a building, and creating joint staff to manage overlapping operations. And some libraries are integrating hands-on exhibits with books. But a library starting a children’s museum is different. This is what we were asked to figure out for the Rancho Cucamonga, CA Library.

I had a lot of questions. What does a blended model look like? How is it different from a children’s museum? What synergies might an expanded set of services offer? How do you organize the space and functions of a library and an interactive museum when both services are run by a single entity?

In addition, there are organizational cultures and traditions to consider, and a significant difference in funding models.

The value of a children’s museum to a library was immediately clear. For libraries, staying relevant is a critical issue. Many are reinventing themselves as community centers, hoping to be the hub of a learning community and a “third place”. And many are focusing on early childhood, recognizing that families need supportive, enjoyable, social learning experiences.

As CA State Library Consultant Suzanne Flint said to me “Libraries are about wonder.” A children’s museum adds a dimension to this of trying, doing and figuring out. A children’s museum and library working as one entity can both ignite and sustain a passion for learning over a lifetime.

Case Study

Some of my favorite exhibit cases don't feel like a case at all. Case in point, the above display from the Denver Art Museum. I like this example because:

• case is highly edited, not packed with artifacts too numerous to digest
• hardware, graphics, stands, etc. are minimal, leaving the focus on the artifacts
• the lighting is bright, and focused where necessary
• the placement of the objects is varied, creating interest and placed relative to human scale

Now, not all of us can afford that type of custom casework. So let's look at the key principles that make their system effective, and maybe they can be applied to less costly cases with similar payoff:

Careful editing

The more you can edit the objects to match the message, the better. Do you want to say "Look at the incredible diversity of artifacts from this culture?" or "Can you tell the progression from style A to style D?" and so on. If it doesn't support the story, take it out.

Maximize what you want the visitor to focus on The cases above use the simplest of materials for mounting, displaying, and holding things together. It's also incredibly consistent, which leaves all the focus of variety to the artifacts. See the below detail– they're using a shaft collar on a tube to hold up some of the shelves, and simple, clear plex bases for smaller artifacts:

Lighting

There is nothing like a good lighting designer. If you can afford one, use them. When you can't, then experiment until you get it right. Lighting 3D objects is tricky business. Whole tomes have been written on the topic.

Embrace drama

Create variety with scale, placement, isolation and orientation. Who says everything has to fit on a grid?

Hooray for Play!

Our very own Justine Roberts brought this to my attention: Monday's New York Times published an article about the positive impact play time has on kids and the study that supports it. Read it, it's good, short, and informative. Basically, a collaborative group of researchers took 11,000 children between ages 8 and 9, and gave some recess, and others none. They found that the kids who had recess had better classroom performance than the kids without. Straight from the study's mouth:

"CONCLUSIONS. These results indicated that, among 8- to 9-year-old children, having > 1 daily recess period of >15 minutes in length was associated with better teacher's rating of class behavior scores. This study suggests that schoolchildren in this age group should be provided with daily recess." Source: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/123/2/431

This is supportive data for our informal learning institutions, and builds on something that we've been preaching and practicing here at Gyroscope. One of the people noted in the article, Dr. Stuart Brown,is the founder of the National Institute of Play. They are gathering research from a diverse band of play scientists and:

" ... initiating projects to expand the clinical scientific knowledge of human play and translating this emerging body of knowledge into programs and resources which deliver the transformative power of play to all segments of society." Source: http://www.nifplay.org/

Their board includes the likes of Jane Goodall, folks from IDEO, the Jonas Salk Foundation, and so on. No museum folks... Anyway, according to Ms. Parker Pope, Brown considers play:

“a fundamental biological process.” “From my viewpoint, it’s a major public health issue,” he said. “Teachers feel like they’re under huge pressures to get academic excellence to the exclusion of having much fun in the classroom. But playful learning leads to better academic success than the skills-and-drills approach.”

That fits nicely with my personal experience: I remember things best when I'm having fun. Thanks, Justine!

Local Magazine as a Model for a (great) Sustainability Exhibit?

On a recent trip to Colorado, I came across a local, annual publication that piqued my interest. It's called the Great Ecstatic Reporter, and it's produced by a bookstore/publishing non-profit out of Fort Collins- Wolverine Farms. Why do I think it's a good model for an exhibit on Sustainability? Let me count the ways... A clear invitation to participate, with help provided. Sustainability is, after all, about all of us participating. The Letter from the Editors functions not only as an introduction to the issue, but also as an invitation to contribute. The part I like is that they offer help (which I'd gladly take advantage of) for submissions. So from page 1 they are inviting YOU to contribute: They reinforce ownership/participation with a light touch. They include an Ex Libris page- a nice touch for a free, black and white newspaper piece. I like the invite and the dichotomy. They talk about things of global import, through local color. This article below highlighted a local company that's developing solar power technology (click on it to read it). Another article talked about the author's visit to Amory Lovin's home- from his point of view. They walk the walk. They also pepper the magazine with "save" and "no expiration date" commentary, while using sustainable printing practices. Think the next issue will be on-line and in print. They cover the bases. Take a look at their table of contents. It reads like an exhibit plan. At least, an exhibit I'd like to see (you may have to click on the image to see it larger): They include a call to action. In most articles, they include a call to action. Web sites, what you can do, invitations to participate, a variety of local resources to get involved with... the list goes on. They fully harness the nuanced power of design. As you can see from the images I've scanned above, they use the format of large image/ personal article to get and keep your attention. They utilize varied typefaces to further that aim. Most are along the lines of handwritten/scrawl to make it feel like "I can do this". It also gives it that handmade feel we're all so hungry for in our digital universe. Finally, I spoke briefly with the editor, Tod Simmons. He said that they are a 501c3 and were a recipient of a grant for the printing of last year's GER by New Belgium Brewery (a local brewing company that has deep philosophical and philanthropic roots). He said that they are always looking for different book or product reviews, local people or organizations, or "for shorter philosophical inquiries that look at living sustainably through a different lens". Love the result. Now I want to make an exhibit on it. Thanks, GER!

Interface Surge

Recently, Mattel released a toy that had an interface which 'rivaled museum experiences'. Shortly after, Paul Orselli cited a blog posting about the new Google Earth for the Wii Fit. Basically, you can now surf the earth physically and virtually. It got me thinking about how museums have long spent thousands of dollars developing interactions such as these for visitors. Now for-profit entities such as Google and Mattel are developing products that raise the bar in what's expected from human-to-computer interactions. Not to mention that the distinction between human and computer is blurring amongst the general public in many parts of the world. Sometimes, museums and the non-profit world don't have the funding to push the envelope (perhaps... now?). At other times, they surge ahead of what the corporate world is doing. That said, an old, clunky, interface is not always a deterrent to an exhibit experience. It can, and does work, as in some instances at the Exploratorium, where the environment of experimentation and historic space is particularly forgiving. It's a bit of a blessing I think, that in this fiscal climate that the corporate world has provided the museum world with a distribution system of ready-made (and very expensive to develop) interfaces that museums can take advantage of. Luckily for us, institutions such as Ars Electronica, and individuals like Jeff Hahn will continue to push the outer edges of the envelope. I hope that there is an economy that will continue to provide the distribution of their breakthroughs.

Quick post: natural environments and kids

Recently, Maeryta Medrano sent me a link to an article about kids with ADHD and the impact of environment called "Nature Improves Concentration for Children with ADHD" written by Frances Kuo and Andrea Faber Taylor of the Landscape and Human Health Lab at Urbana-Champaign. This article echoed something we'd been reading, writing, and doing our best to practice for a while- that natural materials and environments have an effect on kids. This is something I'll come back to in future posts. There has been a tradition in children's museums (especially) to create an environment with bright colors and plastic laminates. However, sometimes the use of these materials has an unintended effect on children. If we want to foster inquiry, reflection, and specific types of play, isn't it important that the colors and materials in that environment support those activities?

Name Games at Children's Museums? Take the Survey!

Hi- Terah Gonzalez, Administrative Assistant and Justine Roberts, Principal at Gyroscope guest posting. We're working on a project that explores a unique trend in the naming of children’s museums.

From analyzing data from the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM), we have found that more than 12% of registered ACM museum members have changed their name in the last 16 years. Interestingly, over half of the same set has changed their name in the last 5 years.

Many of these children’s museums have changed around the order of words in their names– Children’s Museum, Boston to Boston Children’s Museum, e.g. Many others have gone from this type of name to one that includes active verbs or fun adjectives such as Explora (which used to be the Children’s Museum of Albequerque) and Imaginarium of South Texas (which originally opened as the Laredo Children’s Museum). In all, of the 300 museums in the ACM membership, 52 have this style of name and 11 of these organizations have adopted this type of name in the last five years (that's 21%).

This discovery brings up several questions about the names of children’s museums.

• Why are museums changing them in the first place?
• What is it about the last five years that has seen so many name changes?
• Why are children's museums increasingly choosing names that are “off the beaten path” and include verbs and adjectives?
• Are these museum names sign of other deeper changes?
• Or are museums seeing their names as essentially marketing and positioning opportunities?

To answer these questions and more, Gyroscope has launched a survey of Children’s Museum professionals. It focuses on names, audience, and models for visitor interaction, visitor feedback, and visitor research in children’s museums. If you would like your organization to be included in the survey, please click on the link below.