My experience having been both floor staff and behind-scenes staff is that
docents will make up stuff to amuse themselves.  Curatorial staff I have
worked with has often had the attitude that it's on the label, the docent
will just give the same info.  They don't supervise.  That's not universal
of course.  I've known some places that write scripts for docents and have
them observed on occasion.  I think a good solution would be drawing the
docents into the mission of the museum and letting them feel what they do
is too important to be spreading false knowledge, and to encourage them to
bring any new facts they find for possibly adding to the exhibit.  That way
you can encourage scholarship at the same time.
Vincent

At 12:11 AM 2/23/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>I've heard some volunteer docents in several museums tell some real whoppers,
>and I suspect that part of the problem is inadequate or inappropriate
>training.  I know in my own museum docents are not generally trained by the
>curatorial staff, which I've always thought was a mistake.  In fact, some of
>the docents have no idea who the curators are.  I'm not trying to generalize
>about docents or docent training programs, but I've heard enough errors of
>fact to convince me that there is sometimes a problem, and the innocent
>public gets shortchanged and misinformed.  When one gives a tour or lecture
>in either a museum setting or a lecture hall, there's no substitute for depth
>of knowledge and expertise.  I'm not attempting to slam museum educators and
>their programs, and my evidence is purely personal and anecdotal, but it's
>clear to me that some institutions don't take seriously enough their
>obligation to disseminate accurate information to the public through docent
>tours

Vincent T. Lyon
Robert Crown Law Library
Stanford University
650-725-0810
[log in to unmask]

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).