CULTURE and culture at the Royal Ontario Museum: Anthropology Meets Marketing,Part Two

This paper reports anthropological research conducted at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) by the author over three years. The purpose of the research was a traditional anthropological one: to listen to visitors at length and in depth. Part One, published in Curator 46 (2), offered ethnographic data, anthropological analysis, and a marketing perspective to suggest why the visitor's point of view may seem vertiginously strange to museum personnel. It characterized the conflict between host and guest as the outcome of two competing models of culture: “preferment” and “transformation.” In Part Two, visitors' experiences of the museum serve to illuminate a shift in attitudes toward museum culture. This research establishes a typology of consumer segments and a set of strategic recommendations for freeing the museum from the preferment model without abandoning those visitors who continue to embrace it.     

Investigation of Fogging on Glass Display Cases at the Royal Ontario Museum

ABSTRACT

Shortly after a major renovation at the Royal Ontario Museum, it was noticed that the glass panels in many of the new display cases exhibited fogging or hazing on the surface, sometimes in very specific patterns. Cleaning removed the fogging temporarily, but it began to reappear within 12 months. An investigation of fogged glass panels in display cases was undertaken to understand the source of the fogging and to develop an appropriate cleaning method. This included the analysis of residues from glass panels in several galleries, and surface imaging and compositional analysis of glass panels. The fogging residues on the glass panels consist mainly of sodium salts of organic acids and inorganic anions. Sources of the sodium in the residues include air particulate matter and the glass itself. The organic acids and inorganic anions that form salts with the sodium cations likely originate from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter in the air. Examination of the fogging patterns on the glass panels revealed that the sodium salts grow on marks made during cleaning attempts and the manufacturing process. These cleaning and manufacturing marks contain greasy residues that encourage crystal growth. Because of the variation in surface cleanliness, panels with more cleaning and manufacturing residues appear to be heavily fogged while those with less may appear to be unfogged in the museum display cases. A cleaning protocol was tested on two of the glass panels, and was found to remove all traces of grease and fogging residue.     

集自然历史、世界文化于一身的皇家安大略博物馆

皇家安大略博物馆融合自然历史和世界文化于一身,藏品超过1250万件,大量开展国际范围的研究。2017年参观人数超过130万人次。该馆设有27个永久的世界文化和自然历史展厅、2个儿童动手实践探索展厅和4个用于临时展览的展区。该馆收集了两只鲸鱼的骨架,将其中一只鲸鱼的心脏做塑化处理后在主展厅展出,将在加拿大各地和其他国家和地区进行巡回展出。     

Making Silicon Valley : Culture,Representation, and Technology at the Tech Museum

There has been much discussion of Silicon Valley, the area south of San Francisco that is home to many high-technology firms. This article explores the cultural discourse of Silicon Valley, paying particular attention to the newly-opened Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and the strategies of commemoration, identity construction, and exhibition it uses to mirror, focus, and construct a Silicon Valley culture. The Tech Museum successfully captures the dominant ideological elements of Silicon Valley, combining celebration of technology with a fascination with what the museum s literature refers to as the gizmos and gadgets produced by Valley companies. The Tech serves as a material focal point for Valley culture, but fails to provide a coherent direction or message for it.     

Art and Its Publics: Museum Studies at the Millennium: Andrew McClellan,ed.

New Interventions in Art History 2. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 213 pages. Paperback, $24.95.     

浅议科技博物馆中的创客活动

近几年,创客成为世界范围内教育发展的热点。创客之所以能够进入中国的各类教育系统是源自多方的影响因素。然而,当前被大谈特谈的“创客教育”实际上是一个伪概念,根本就不存在有实质意义的“创客教育”,其本质只是一种遵循了建构主义思想的学习方式而已。开展创客活动的关键是构建良好的创客空间,而科技博物馆天然具有这方面的优势。美国旧金山探索馆的巧匠工作室的成功案例,是中国科技博物馆学习的楷模。科技博物馆开展创客活动需要从三个方面着手:(1)构建良好的创客空间环境;(2)走出高技术创客项目开发的误区;(3)汇聚全社会的能工巧匠,开发适合本馆特点的创客活动。     

Transforming the Organization,Part 1

Organizations are living, not engineered, systems, and changing them is best done “biologically,” through understanding the sometimes burdensome appliances their evolution conjures. Institutional evolution is not some logical progressus toward a goal by the shortest route or with the smallest expenditure of energy. It is not a matter of simple observable cause and effect, but a complex web of adaptive behavior influencing behavior. Leaders who aspire to transform organizations are unlikely to succeed unless they understand the dynamics of their environment; conceptualize and put into action strategies that will enable the organization to gain and maintain a competitive advantage; and include their people, all along the way, in the process.     

上海博物馆的社会教育：理念与实践

上海博物馆在教育工作方面 ,一直有着自己的风格和特色 ,同时 ,也存在着广阔的发展空间。在 2 1世纪到来的时候 ,社会教育将以何种姿态 ,承前启后、继往开来 ,如何更加深入地开发教育功能、拓展博物馆教育的领域 ,更好地发挥博物馆的社会效益 ,是放在每一个上博人 ,特别是上博教育工作者面前的重大课题。　　一、树立“以人为本”、为观众服务的博物馆教育理念　　 2 0世纪 90年代以来 ,随着计划经济向市场经济的转轨 ,人们的观念出现了巨大的变化。在经济领域里 ,我国结束了长期以来物资供应的不足 ,由卖方市场逐步进入买方市场 ,人们有了…     

Strategies against Architecture: Interactive Media and Transformative Technology at the Cooper Hewitt,Smithsonian Design Museum

After being closed for three years, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum reopened at the end of 2014 a transformed museum in a renovated heritage building: Andrew Carnegie's former home on the Upper East Side of New York City. New galleries, a collection that was being rapidly digitized, a new brand, and a desire for new audiences drove the museum to rethink and reposition its role as a design museum. At the core of the new museum is a digital platform, built in‐house, that connects collection‐ and patron‐management systems to in‐gallery and online experiences. These have allowed the museum to redesign everything from object labels and vitrines to the fundamentals of the “visitor experience.” This paper explores in detail the process, the decisions made—and resulting tradeoffs—during each stage of the process. In so doing, it reveals the challenges of collaborating with internal and external capacities, operating internationally with online collaboration tools, and rapid prototyping.     

Public Libraries and the Opioid Crisis,Part 1: Context and Commitment

Public libraries have been significantly affected by the opioid crisis. The fact that patrons can enter libraries freely and do not need a reason to be there has resulted in overdoses occurring in many such buildings throughout the country. In response to this, library directors have developed plans of action that, in some cases, include training librarians to administer the opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone. This present article – the first in a two-part study – is based on interviews with representatives from libraries that have been significantly affected by the opioid crisis. After describing these community circumstances, the authors analyze various ways that each library has prepared to respond to overdoses and other emergency situations.     

点亮世界的博物馆——英国博物馆考察记

<正>一从伦敦坐火车约两个小时就可以到牛津。我们已经和阿什莫林博物馆(Ashmolean Museum)东方部的Shelagh女士约好十点钟见面。六月的天气温暖、湿润、阳光明媚,在博物馆一层大厅,Shelagh女士略带歉意地告诉我们中国展厅正在装修,两年后