I am adjunct faculty in a graduate program in
Decorative Arts and Design History in New York City. 
For the course I am teaching this semester,
"Interpreting Decorative Arts," we recently discussed
the role of audio tours in interpretation.  A student
had the following questions, for which I could really
only surmise answers.  I couldn't find answers to
these questions in the MUSEUM-L archive, so am hoping
some of you might have responses.

1. It seems that more museums are offering audio tours
for free/as part of admission whereas they used to be
an additional cost.  Is this as a result of visitor
complaints, or something else (lower costs of
technology, museums budgeting for them and receiving
grants, etc)?  Is there any data on this?

2.  Is there an equivalent text to Beverly Serrell's
_Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach_ that deals
soley with audio tours -- including recommendations on
how best to script them, length, etc?  Or even an
article?

Essentially, I am wondering if anyone is aware of
literature on these subjects.  Barring that, any
individual responses from museums on their experience
would be interesting.

Thanks

Kristin Herron


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