Don
first let me declare an interest. Ansae are currently developing
information and guidance equipment based around a hand held web browser.
i.e text and images rather than audio so expect slightly biased comments
here. however I'll try to be fair.

In my research I have found some sites that very much like the audio
guides, and some that detest them.  It all seems to depend on your
attitude towards communication.  The key difference is that audio is
didactic - i.e you have a teacher pupil relationship, the guide knows it
all and _tells_ the visitor.  One pro site described this as having the
curator wispering in your ear.  The nature of audio is that you _have_ to
listen to the whole message, audio is difficult to scan through and most
people can't continue a conversation whilst listening.  The observable
effect is that chatter between visitors tends to drop giving a quiet
cathedral atmosphere with each person involved in their own internal
conversation.  Audio also allows the person to focus on the object they
are supposed to be looking at rather than a book or label.

In contrast guide books, both paper and digital, are subordinate to the
reader, people can scan text for keywords, flip back and forth, start and
stop very easily, they are in control. There is more likely to be
chatter.

That said, it all really depends on the quality and effectiveness of your
content.

WRT the honour system. the objects are less likely to be stolen if they
have no apparent external use. for example, a guide that is clearly a
simple walkman would be more likely to disappear than a custom built
device.





Regards
Andrew Watkins          Technical Director, Ansae Ltd.
Tel: 01926 640073,      web: http://www.ansae.co.uk/