In a message dated 01-02-27 16:02:32 EST, John Martinson wrote:

<< My comments would be there should be policy in your organization that since
 we work the public (since they are our bread and butter) that allows the
 guide to say, "Very good question.  I do not know the answer to that question
 right now..but I will get an answer back to you before you leave the
 museum/park/site, etc. today."  And then get the answer back to them. >>

The following is an unfortunately lengthy response, but I didn't have time to
be concise.

John, I'm tempted to say "in your dreams."  Getting answers back to visitors
before they leave the museum would be totally impractical in certain
circumstances, in certain museums, and with certain questions.  In a large
museum this might be well-nigh impossible to achieve.  I hate to be cynical,
but there is also the very high likelihood that a visitor would never return
to get the answer that the conscientious docent has gone out of his or her
way to find.  I've even had the latter happen with telephone inquiries, when
I've dug up information to answer a question and then could never succeed in
getting the caller to return my calls.  It is unfortunately true that some
visitors who are curious about something one minute couldn't care less about
getting the answer two hours later.

Your scenario might work in a small museum, where the docent would be in a
position to contact a knowledgeable staff member quickly, and in which the
questioner would be able to find the docent later to get the answer.  But I
don't see how it would be feasible in my museum, the National Museum of
American History, unless a lot of changes were made.  There may currently be
an exception to my claim, however, in our big exhibition on the Presidency.
We have a number of crowd-control guides working that exhibit, and it's
possible that they're in a better position to get answers to visitor
questions than would otherwise be the norm.  One of my volunteers works in
that exhibit one day a week: I'll ask him how they handle these things--and
get back to you!

Most of the time, however, our tour guides range widely around the museum,
and I think it would be very difficult for visitors to locate them later for
follow-up.  I suspect the guides and docents have little time in their
schedules to get answers, and even if they did, they would have trouble
locating an appropriate staff member for an authoritative answer.  As I
previously indicated, I feel that in my museum there is too much of a
disconnect between docents and staff anyway, and the current reality is that
most of the docents would seldom know whom to contact.  If they did know whom
to contact with a question, they would have probably less than a 50% chance
of reaching that person at any given time.  A large amount of staff time is
devoted to meetings, research, working with the collections, and other
activities which make it impossible to be available for quick answers to spot
questions.

Parenthetically, I have to note that there has been a heavy emphasis in
museum culture toward discouraging the kind of specialization which many
visitors would like to access!  A couple of years ago there were debates on
Museum-L about specialists vs. "generalists" in museums, and many members
expressed a certain disdain for specialization.  My museum is one of many
which have responded to this emphasis with steps which tend to minimize or
hide specialized staff knowledge.  Where our organizational chart once
clearly articulated staff expertise by associating people with particular
kinds of objects and collections, it is now much less obvious.  Our phone
directory used to list staff with their specialties, but no more.  The upshot
is that docents and information desk volunteers now have a much harder chore
in tracking down answers to visitor questions.

Unfortunately, visitors often ask questions which are difficult to answer
anyway.  They may be interested in factoids which would require research.
Sometimes the questions are simple and mundane, as in where exactly is a
particular object they want to see--but with our often thematic exhibits,
even that frequently is a stumper.  I encounter visitors frequently because
my office is located on an exhibit floor, unlike most of the museum staff,
and I know that many of the questions visitors ask could not be answered off
the top of the appropriate specialist's head even if that particular head
could be located at a moment's notice.

Often visitors ask the "wrong" questions, and I have to redirect them to
other sources of information.  I try to explain, as tactfully and humbly as I
can, that we're a museum, not a library or encyclopedia, and we're not able
to answer every conceivable question.  I personally think that one of the
most important services we can provide is the explanation that people
sometimes need to do their own research.  I ask them, for example, if they've
tried to find the answer on the Web (great resource, and great cop-out!)  A
visitor once asked me how many windows there are in the White House and how
many gallons of paint it takes to paint it!  At first I thought she was
kidding, but she was serious.  I suggested she try contacting the White House
curator.

I don't know what kind of training our docents get about answering visitor
questions (I should find out).  But in our museum's case, I really don't
think "I don't know, but I'll get the answer and tell you before you leave"
is an option.  "I'm sorry, I don't know, and I'm afraid there's no easy way
for me to find out for you" must be the response most of the time, I should
think.  On the other hand, the Smithsonian public inquiry office (staffed by
volunteers) does an excellent job in locating staff to answer written
inquiries (they call to ask if the question is up your alley and if they can
count on you to answer a referral).  So I hope the docents and tour guides
offer that corollary advice.  A visitor who is serious about getting an
answer to a question should be amenable to writing a letter or e-mail and
waiting a couple of weeks for a thoughtful reply, which would be better than
a flat "I don't know" or, worse,.the docent feeling a need to make something
up.

David Haberstich

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