Ms. Lewis:

Do you have access to a copy of Falk and Dierking's book _The Museum
Experience_?   It's an excellent book that may provide answers to your
questions.  I just pulled it back off my shelf and, paging thru briefly, I
believe that pages 70 - 74 will answer your specific question.  I would
suggest however that, if you have time, you read the entire book (it reads
really quickly) to put this short bit on labels in its proper context.
The whole book is peppered with insights on the interaction of various
audiences with exhibits and labels, including background info on the
audiences and influences on their behavior and decisions.  If you can't
read it all, at least try reading chapters three and four.  Hope this
helps.

Sincerely,

Bill

p.s.  Briefly, for those of you who don't have a copy to reach for right
now, Falk and Dierking explain that for each label there are two groups of
people, those who read it and those who don't.  They see it as a bi-modal
distribution, with one mean being virtually no time (those who don't read
it) and the second mean being about a minute (those who do).  There are a
ton of reasons for why visitors do or don't read a particular label, but
I've got to get to a meeting, so I'll leave this open to discussion and
speculation (both of which we all have proven to be so good at). : )


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William H. Stirrat  (Bill)
Evaluator/Market Researcher              ? !
Our Minnesota Science Hall                  o
Science Museum of Minnesota          /( )\
30 East 10th Street                                    /\
St. Paul, MN  55101
612/221-9442
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As always, opinions expressed are my own.
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