Given all of the comments on the staff perspective of being "on display" I
wanted to add that in our new building, the labs chosen to be on display
were the labs that had staff that were willing to do so.  If a curator did
not want their lab on display, they opted out of being in that area.  Their
labs are no less spiffy for not being on display, there was no punishment
nor reward for participating in this option.

Elizabeth Moore

Dr. Elizabeth A. Moore
Curator of Collections and Archaeology
Virginia Museum of Natural History
1001 Douglas Avenue
Martinsville, VA  24112

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Moore" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Museum discussion list" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: Viewing Collections Work Rooms


> Here at the Virginia Museum of Natural History we recently completed the
> design for a new building that contains three laboratories to be "on
> display."  They are adjacent to each other along one hall and each will
have
> a glass wall with blinds that can be closed when necessary.  The labs to
be
> on display are vert paleo (the visitors will be watching lots of dino and
> fossil whale prep), the SEM (where visitors will see on monitors what
people
> are working on in the SEM and can communicate via speakers of some sort
that
> can be turned off if the researcher needs uninterrupted quiet), and
> conservation/collections processing (where visitors will see all kinds of
> collections-related tasks going on).  We are all very excited about this
> opportunity to educate our visitors on what goes on in a museum every
day -
> from the exciting to the repetitive.  We currently host an open house each
> year where visitors can visit all of the behind-the-scenes areas and it is
> extremely successful.  We also do brief tours for unscheduled yet very
> interested visitors as well as longer tours for those who tend to plan
> ahead - school groups, scout troops, etc.  Even so, much of the public
> remains uninformed about what exactly museum people do all day.  We see
this
> as just one more opportunity to educate them.
>
> Elizabeth Moore
>
> Dr. Elizabeth A. Moore
> Curator of Collections and Archaeology
> Virginia Museum of Natural History
> 1001 Douglas Avenue
> Martinsville, VA  24112
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kathy Mancuso" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 12:20 AM
> Subject: Re: Viewing Collections Work Rooms
>
>
> > This method is currently being used at the National Museum of American
> > History with "Julia Child's Kitchen."  They have signs up in the exhibit
> at
> > each workstation saying things like "cataloging." (Kind of like labels
at
> > the National Zoo?)  This is, however, temporary, and involves about 5 or
> 10
> > people.  Sorry my memory is a bit vague on details--I know that there
are
> > some people from NMAH on list who probably can speak to this better than
I
> > can.
> >
> > Kathy Mancuso
> >
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