In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood describes a study that investigated the impact of a museum visit on university students. Bitgood's report focuses on the racial similarities and differences in the students' responses.
In this article related to evaluation and multicultural audiences, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood presents a "progress report" on a visitor center and environmental education project in Puerto Rico that is being designed to serve both the local Puerto rican audience as well as the international visitor. Bitgood shares findings from the study featured in a report to the Caribbean National Forest, part of the USDA National Forest Service.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood and Don Thompson address the issue of how museums can appeal to multicultural audiences and assess the impact of their attempts to attract new audiences. Bitgood and Thompson outline a four-step process for addressing problems of multicultural audiences.
In this article, Don Thompson summarizes a 1993 article featured in the "Visitor Studies: Theory, Research, and Practice" journal, written by G. Donald Adams. Adams describes a project at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, in which newly discovered historical research guided the development and marketing of the Mattox House and African-American exhibit. Adam presents seven different types of research that were conducted during the project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Don ThompsonVisitor Studies Association
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this article, Harris Shettel, museum evaluation consultant and President of the Visitor Studies Association (1991-1993), discusses the state of the field of visitor studies and makes predictions about and recommendations for the future. This paper was part of a panel discussion, "A Look To The Future," that was scheduled as the final session of a visitor studies conference held in London.
This article highlights findings from a study conducted by researchers at Jacksonville State University that assessed group visitor behavior at four exhibits at the Anniston Museum of Natural History. Researchers studied if male and female adults behave differently at exhibits when they are with a child than when they are with another adult as well as whether or not adult behavior was consistent across different types of exhibits.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen BitgoodChifumi KitazawaAndrea CavenderKaren Nettles
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood outlines variables that influence social learning in museums. Bitgood identifies group variables, which include those that originate from the quality or number of people within the group or from the combination of variables as well as exhibit characteristics, or design features of the exhibit that play a critical role in understanding how visitor groups behave.
In this article, Barbara A. Birney of Interpretive Planning in Nuce discusses findings from a 1988 study of 12-year-old children's perceptions of their social experience in musuems and zoos. Birney found that children associated visiting museums and zoos with their parents with a lack of control over their own learning experience.
In this article, David Scott, Ph.D. provides a summary of an importance-performance appraisal of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, Ohio. The attributes selected for appraisal included a variety of service attributes.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Amy Cota and Stephen Bitgood share findings from a study of label content, specifically the effects of length and sequence. Researchers aimed to answer the following questions: (1) If the entire label is read, will retention of information be related to the length of the text? and (2) When information is presented in two paragraphs, is the order of presentation important?
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Amy Cota and Stephen Bitgood present abstracts of papers and articles on museum studies focused on memory.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Ann Cleghorn summarizes a 1993 "Museum Management and Curatorship" article written by Paulette M. McManus. The article cites findings from a study of visitor's memories as indicators of the impact of museum visits. The study analyzed visitors ages 8-50 years, who visited "Gallery 33, A Meeting Ground of Cultures in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery," an exhibition about human society and includes materials on beliefs, values, customs, and art from around the world.