Research on Mobile Museum Content

Research into museum use of mobile applications and online databases is going well. Some of the results are quite surprising and not what one would initially expect. One of the big gripes about a large shared service like the app I am proposing is getting various institutions working together on it.

Results from the 2012 Museum Associations survey at this link however show that 63% of organizations surveyed feel that partnering with other institutions would be a good way to get over issues of funding and designing such content. If a group of midsize museums were interested in pooling some resources, the project becomes quite viable.

Some more interesting results, as far as visitors go, can be found at this link. Around 50% of museum visitors visit the institutions website first to plan their visit, however those results are skewed towards adults. Younger visitors are more  likely to just show up in the area or the museum and then rely on their mobile devices to get any more information they need on the fly. The same survey shows that, again surprisingly, visitor interest in using mobile tours is not age centric. People of all ages are balanced with about a 45% ratio of visitors wanting to have some sort of audio or application tour to help them learn more.

Overall, research is going great and the results point towards the future growth being spot on for projects like this. Within the near future the growth of interactive learning tours will increase, and they will evolve away from simple audio tours and borrowed devices to users accessing whatever they please from their own hardware.

Demographic Studies in Zoos

Over the last few weeks, the direction of my thesis project has remained fairly constant. One of the primary things I am researching at the moment is demographic studies of zoos and their audiences. The reason for this is that I will be including studies or experiments from similarly sized or demographically diverse institutions and relating what could be implemented at the Seneca Park Zoo. By comparing institutions that have a similar demographic composition it is possible to infer how an audience of similar composition, not necessarily number of patrons, may respond in an experiment. Demographic studies in cultural institutions are also important in visitor studies because it provides the institution an insight as to who their audience actually is. This information may change the way an institution plans an exhibition if the institution realizes that the audience they were developing an exhibition for is not included in the audience that walks through the doors on a day-to-day basis.

Photo Credit: Seneca Park Zoo
http://senecaparkzoo.org/page/polar-bear-awareness

Birney, Barbara A., and Carolyn Heinrich. “Understanding Demographic Data on Zoo Visitors.” The Journal of Museum Education 16, no. 2 (April 1, 1991): 19–22.

Updates and breakdown

There have been a few major developments over the course of the last two weeks that could really help bring my thesis together. The first being a meeting with Dr. Tina Lent when she suggested that I contact the RIT archives to ask for the report on the collection that should have been done when the pieces were acquired. This is huge because it will let me see if there was any damage done to the pieces before RIT was responsible for their care. If the damage was there before RIT acquired the collection, it should be noted in my reports. The second major thing is taking pictures of the collection. Because there was a show on the collection, it is safe to assume that each item was photographed. If I can get permission from the photographer to use them, it would be a huge time saver. The only issue with that I'm worried about is that the images will not show damages especially on pieces where noticeable issues are on the inside, like that of vases.

The above image, which is from UCLA/Getty Institute, is the type of work that I would want to take. The UV light shows the potential degradation and any prior conservation efforts.

As for work so far I have begun writing the rough draft that is due for February 26th. After starting, there are a few area where I'll need some more sources to fill in gaps of information. These gaps come mostly in the provenance area of the paper because it added recently. If the archive does have the records from the acquisition it will cut down the research I need to by a large amount. 

A More Defined Thesis Direction

My thesis has always had the direction of motion picture film and being able to utilize the resources of a historically innovative city such as Rochester. I wanted to compare Technicolor and Eastman Color motion picture film, not to determine one superior to the other. I intend to illustrate the differences primarily in the dyes used between the Technicolor and Eastman Kodak corporations. Since the beginning of the Spring semester, I have been developing my thesis to include how my thesis impacts museums by illuminating the possible issues with primarily the object's exposure to light. The use of a spectrophotometer will create spectral curves that could benefit the accuracy of color reproductions of object images when printing for publications. The curves could also illustrate changes in color on a object over a period of time, making it a useful tool for preventative conservation.

Photo of Kodak corporate headquarters in Rochester, NY taken by the author

Rochester School for the Deaf: The Roots of Rochester's Deaf Community

Perkins Hall at the Rochester School for the Deaf (undated)

The Rochester School for the Deaf is the first designated site for the deaf in the Rochester's history, and is still in operation today. This will be the first site to be presented for the historical tour of Rochester's deaf community for the Rochester: Then & Now mobile application.

Deaf children of the 19th century typically had little to no opportunity to learn or lead productive lives. Schools for the deaf were not commonplace, so deaf children were often sent to county poor houses or kept at home without language or education.

It was the birth of Carolyn Erickson Perkins, born to parents Gilman and Caroline Perkins, in Rochester on July 24th, 1868, that set in motion the events that would change the history of Western New York and deaf history. While Carolyn was not the first deaf child to be born in Rochester, her mother Caroline was the daughter of Aaron Erickson, founder of the Union Trust Company. She had a reputation as someone who was a visionary that was willing to confront challenges.

The closest school at the time was the New York School for the Deaf, known as "Fanwood." Concerned for the future of her child and not wanting to send her away, Caroline was determined to find a way for her child to be educated in Rochester. While visiting a school for the deaf in Maryland, she met Mary Hart Nodine. Admiring her warmth and talent, she invited Miss Nodine to go back with them to Rochester as a private teacher for Carolyn. Miss Nodine was engaged to Zenas Freeman Westervelt, a teacher at the Maryland school who became a frequent visitor of the Perkins household. Westervelt had been gathering the names of deaf children in Western New York who were not in school, and felt that Rochester would be a great location for a new school. The Perkins family encouraged him to move to Rochester, and the Rochester School for the Deaf was born.

After his second year teaching in Rochester, Westervelt became concerned about his students ability to make proper use of the English language, and discouraged students from signing. Instead, he urged them to use the manual alphabet with speech. This became widely known as the "Rochester Method."

Source: The Rochester School for the Deaf by Ruth Rosenburg-Naparsteck, 2002 - Click here for PDF

Current status

Currently, I have revised my outline based on Dr. Decker's helpful notes for revision and started writing. I have dived into a random spot—a section based on my own personal experience at the library, instead of going right for the research at the beginning. I think this was a good choice considering my experience is still so fresh in my mind and I can get it all down at once in a less-but-still formal way. The rest of my museum classes are going fine. The Susan B. Anthony application project for Visitor Engagement and Museum Administration is coming along nicely. I am helping create a timeline of not only the historical neighborhood that surrounds the Susan B. Anthony House and Museum but also describing the rest of Rochester's history based around those years. My goal is to finish the first ten pages of my rough draft this upcoming weekend, in which this is due a week from today in class. For my ten pages I plan on not only giving a background to the library I worked with and the department, but also the background regarding the collection I digitized over the summer and the sort of equipment, frustrating and not, I worked with.

Below are a few photos of the desktop scanner I used while scanning the collection. 

Interconnectivity of Data and Access to Museum Content

I am Ben Heller, a previous RIT student working to finish my thesis and Museum Studies degree. I live in Ohio currently and am working remotely, but it is nice to see everyone else's entries and see what others are working on.

My thesis is about creating a shared platform for museums to upload and manage their collections in a way that gives visitors easy access. A large database backend and then a universal application solves this easily, and it becomes a simple question of getting museums on board and visitors interested in using it. Creating an ecosystem that increases visitors desire to learn and ease of discovering new content to visit helps fuel the museums as well.

This is the Louvre app, but the interface is simple and somewhat similar to what I have in mind.

For those interested, here's the abstract:

The evolution of the internet and devices allowing access to it show that users trend towards networking and interconnectivity in their daily lives. (Museum of Chicago, Tech in Everyday Life) Many museums have started to tread into this territory on their own, but most still use simple tours and recordings. A large shared database of museum content ranging from photos of artifacts to historic documents and videos explaining them would allow users to delve further into pieces they enjoy and find similar works at other locations. A single application for all visitors to access and all museums to share would greatly benefit both said visitors as well as the museums themselves. This thesis will survey existing applications in museums, statistics of users of museum mobile offerings and the networks that museums are currently using for access. A variety of institution types will be surveyed for their insight including The Cleveland Art Museum, Science Center and Natural History. It will then prototype a shared network topology allowing museums to share data and allow users remote access to content as well as design the application to access such content.

Membership Trends of Museums of Rochester

One of the most concerning issues in development is the ratio of dollars spent to dollars raised.  One of the vital sources of income for a museum like the Memorial Art Gallery, George Eastman House, and The Strong is membership renewals, and also new membership acquisition. Looking at past years and how the data breaks down we will see how membership has either decreased, grown, or stayed flat. The data will also be used to see how the current practices that are being employed to not only retain the current members but also acquire new members to their organization. Once all the data is compiled, and reviewed it will than be used to put together a cost verses raised comparison of the last 3 years. It will also be able to be use to see how to better focus resources to be more cost effective on contacting members and new acquisitions.

IRS tax form 990 for 2012 and 2013 and also in person interviews with membership departments.

Research Methods

Hi all!

My name is Katy and I am not in your class, but I am doing an independent study of the Researh Methods class you all took. Dr. Decker :) asked me to post to this blog to help get some of the group work aspect out of it which I won't be taking full advantage of with independent study!

My VERY ROUGH idea for a thesis is: How are museums like a retail space and how can we apply the principles of retail and those ideas to the museum to better cater to visitors and make for a more inviting exhibit.

That is super rough, I know. Keep in mind I am just starting so any feed back would be super helpful!

http://www.globalblue.com/brands/specials/harrods/article64670.ece/alternates/w614h400/Hrrds_Window010.jpg

Visitor Studies: How Zoos Learn From Their Patrons

My thesis aims to understand the role that visitor studies plays in zoos and to present this information to the Seneca Park Zoo. This literature review will then be used to create a visitor studies program at the Zoo.

            One focus of my research is understanding how zoos determine whether or not their educational programs are effective. Because many zoos and aquaria focus so much of their programs around conservation of the animals they care for, it is important to understand how visitors react to and learn from these exhibits. Also important is the public’s perception of zoos as institutions of conservation and reintroduction as well as education.

Patrick, Patricia G., and Sue Dale Tunnicliffe. “Rationale for the Existence of Zoos,” in Zoo Talk. 19-°©‐35. New York: Springer, 2006

“Amur Tiger” Photo by Drew Johnson 2015

Deaf History in Rochester: A Self-Guided Tour

Rochester is widely considered by many to be the most Deaf-friendly city in the nation, having the one of the largest Deaf populations per capita in the country. My thesis will aid in the development of a self-guided tour application that will feature locations of historical significance to Rochester’s Deaf community. I intend to do this in collaboration with the Rochester Voices project, with the help of Michelle Finn and Christine Ridarsky from the Rochester Public Library. 

This application is to be modeled after a mobile application created for another city in upstate New York, titled Albany: Then & Now. This application features historical photographs of downtown Albany, pinning the exact locations where the photographs were taken on a map. This allows users to directly compare the present environment with images of the past as they visit each site.

Check out Albany: Then and Now on Google Play!

Since Rochester is a much larger city, its mobile application will encompass multiple tours - I've been given the honor of gathering content for a tour dedicated to Rochester's Deaf history. I am in the process of identifying historically prominent sites, as well as gathering photographs and information. I also intend to obtain ASL-video translations of the informative text to insert in the application to ensure that it is as accessible as possible to the Deaf. Through the creation of this tour, I hope to demonstrate the city of Rochester's importance in American Deaf History. 

Digitizing for Accessibility

We live in an ever-changing society in which advancing technologies have proven to benefit human accessibility in many ways than one.  In the museum field, technology has become a growing aspect to visitor engagement, documentation and research. While museum professionals and archivists make it not only their job to process artifacts, but in some cases, make them digitally accessible online. These online artifacts are classified as digital libraries; online tools used for research and descriptive search engines to interest individuals without the need of the physical interaction at the place of learning. This thesis will include a well assessed and outlook on the current digital libraries online, websites such as the New York Heritage, the Rochester Public Library’s website under local history, and the Rochester Voices website, where digital collections are currently being processed upon, in order to understand the steps of digitizing and how it has changed throughout the years. With volunteer time at the Rochester Public Library’s Local History department and the access to the Raymond L. Rohner papers collection on file, the understanding of how digital libraries are accessed, created and useful to online visitors will be beneficial to future researchers, and the step-by-step process of digitization will reveal how libraries and museums in the future will take advantage of these new technologies. 

Photo from Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County • Historic Monographs Collection

(http://www.libraryweb.org/~digitized/books/My_dear_Else.pdf) 

Conservation of the Wildenhain ceramic collection

The purpose of my thesis is to create a conservation plan that can be used by the Rochester Institute of Technology archives so they have a better understanding of how to care for the collection.

The collection has 313 pieces of ceramic work, because of the large scope 40 pieces are taken as a sample, and used as a benchmark for the collection as a whole. With these 40 pieces I will asses the condition of the work, which may range anywhere from very damaged to perfectly preserved. Along with the assessment there will also be recommendations for storage, transportation and display of the objects, all to insure that objects are cared for in the possible manner.

A Comparison of Dyes between Technicolor and Eastman Color Motion Picture Film

In this thesis, I will illustrate the differences of dyes used by both Technicolor and Kodak and how the dyes have altered over time. To do so, I will perform testing on dyed film test strips by using a spectrophotometer. I will sample 50 test dyed film strips, Technicolor film, and Eastman Color film reels.  I will compare the spectral curve data taken from test dye strips and of Technicolor and Eastman Color film. The spectral curves will allow me to compare the dyes used and evaluate how similar or different the colors are. This data will be analyzed with consideration given to scholarly journals, case studies, and first-hand accounts of dye tests, and knowledge from museums and professionals with a focus or information on motion picture film and restoration. 

I have been making use of the Technicolor corporate archives at the George Eastman House.