In article <[log in to unmask]>, Catherine Lewis
<[log in to unmask]> says:
>
>Does anyone on the list know of any recent studies that discuss how long
>visitors spend reading labels in exhibition galleries?
>
>I would appreciate any information.

Doesn't it depend on how much text there is? I once wrote a label for a
display,
and people only spent 35 sec. reading it. However, it only took that long
to read it all (we tested), so I was pretty happy. Later on, another team
'improved' my display by adding lots more information, and people spent less
time reading overall, because it looked like too much work.
As a general rule, we find that most visitors don't bother much with labels
in our science museum, although adults may read text in our aviation or
agriculture museums. A lot depends on the location and context of the label:
if it's near an attractive artifact or interactive, it may be eventually read.
At some displays, everyone read the text; at others, no one did.

Can you be more specific about the information you want, and why?

Doug Hoy
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