Jim & Museum-L,

I developed something like this, but not with a pamphlet.  One of my clients
has a large collection (about 3000 objects) which was displayed in cases
throughout a gallery.  We numbered each case and took digital photos of each
object.  My company (www.freyaventures.com) developed custom touch-screen
software which allowed visitors several ways to access detailed information
on each object.  They were offered a floor plan with the exhibit case
numbers (touch activated), they could select a specific case directly via a
pop-up numeric keypad and if they were interested in specific types of
objects they could search by form (pitcher, glass, etc.) material (silver,
brass, etc.) or origin (America, England, etc.).  This unique
"reverse-lookup" feature also allowed visitors to locate objects of interest
to them, as the case # was part of the information displayed on the "object
data" screen.

This program used an edited version of the museum's existing collections
database, so extensive re-keying of data was not necessary.  The client
didn't want to clutter the exhibit cases with individual labels for each
object, so each object was digitally photographed to allow the visitor to
visually ID it when they retrieved the contents of a specific case.
(Personally, I also think a visual method of ID is easier then trying to
remember an #####.##### accession number, to look it up.)

Of course the initial cost for a system like this would probably exceed
printing costs for the first batch of pamphlets... but once the database is
complete, it can be updated as objects leave/enter the gallery exhibition.
And if the software is designed properly, the complete touch-screen system
could be re-used for future exhibitions.

Mark C. Vang
Freya Ventures
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(757) 340-0099





>What would be really great would be a small pamphlet that follows each
>exhibit and goes into more detail about the display. A couple of
>examples of the information I would be interested in are: Most of the
>time a mask or knife might be identified as African - ca 1800. How
>about where in Africa, what is was used for, what tribe, what
>materials, how was it acquired, etc.