Here are complete references for the two publications about labels which I
recommended in an earlier posting:

"Standards Manual for Signs and Labels in the Metropolitan Museum of Art",
MMA, 1993.  This deals with nuts-and-bolts issues of making signage and
labels truly accessible. It deals with standards of legibility, placement,
lighting, etc. A brief but thorough treatment which should be on any basic
reading list about labels.

"The Visitor's Voice"  (Visitor Studies in the Renaissance-Baroque Galleries
of The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990-1993), John E. Schloder, Project
Director, CMA, 1993. This is a detailed study, based on exhaustive visitor
evaluations, of a variety of labeling approaches.  It deals not only with
legibility and placement, but also with content. The study looked at
visitors' ages, gender, visitation frequency and other characteristics and
related them to the visitors' evaluations of the effectiveness of the labels,
in terms of information retained, time spent in the galleries, etc. As would
be expected, it goes into more detail than may be necessary in some areas,
but for someone trying to learn how to write a good label, this is
informative reading.

John Vanco, Erie Art Museum
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