Dear Museum-Lers,

I am posting this for a colleague...



Hello, all.

I have just been asked to respond to a proposal for our new facility: that
there be a headphone audio tour of the permanent exhibit, where visitors
would hear text and effects as they wandered around the exhibit. Apparently
it works on infra-red signals; people walk in and out of audio zones and
hear a brief sound track pertaining to what they see.

As the education coordinator and supervisor of the exhibit staff, I have
some questions for all of you.

1. In a setting like this, what kind of a dynamic do you observe among your
visitors? What is the impact on people sharing their reactions to what they
see with one another? How does this affect parents' abilities to interact
with their children?

2. I've been assured that the distribution of these headphones works on an
honour system, where people pick up their headphones and replace them neatly
all by themselves at the end.  HOW LIKELY ARE THESE THINGS TO WALK OUT THE
DOOR? How likely are they to end up in a big mess on the floor? What is my
overall investment in human resources for these things? I have no security
personnel in the main exhibit; just video surveillance and interpretive
staff who are also responsible for staffing the front desk.

3. I have started researching the above questions in the recent literature.
Have you read anything recently that might help me?

I appreciate your help.

Don Enright
Coordinator, Thematic and Cultural Programs
National Capital Commission
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada