The Museum Experience - Softcover

John, H. Falk; Lynn, D. Dierking

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0929590074 ISBN 13: 9780929590073

Publisher: Howells House / Whalesback Books, 1992

Synopsis

The Museum Experience is the first book to take the "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit. It integrates the authors' original research with that from a wide variety of disciplines as well as museum and visitor studies ranging from science centers and zoos to art and natural history museums. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience gives museum professionals a thorough introduction to what is known about why people go to museums, what they do there, and what they learn. This book is an essential reference for all museum professionals concerned with communicating with the public. It has been used widely for college coursed in the United States, Canada and the UK, and has been translated into Japanese and Chinese.

About this title

About the Author:

John H. Falk is a leading figure in free-choice learning, museum research, and science education in the United States. Currently, he holds the position Sea Grant Professor of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University. He is founder and Director Emeritus of the well-known museum research firm, Institute for Learning Innovation, in Annapolis, Maryland and has worked at a variety of other key positions in the museum world, including 14 years at the Smithsonian Institution. Falk earned a joint doctorate in Biology and Education from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly articles and chapters in the areas of biology, psychology and education, co-author with Lynn Dierking of The Museum Experience, Learning from Museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning, and Lessons without Limit: How free-choice learning is transforming education, with Beverly Sheppard of Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New business models for museums and other cultural institutions and editor of numerous books including Free-Choice Science Education: How we learn science outside of school.

Review:

"...The Museum Experience is one of the most stimulating and readable books I have ever encountered. ... I have been amazed by the lack of clearly presented analyses to help educators be more effective. This book goes far to fill that void. America's museums have contributed much to public learning. They can and must contribute much more. The Museum Experience is an invaluable means to that end. This compact volume is a lucid and germane enumeration of the basic issues of visitor learning. It will have resonance for every museum professional - because every museum professional is vitally concerned with the museum's central role as a center of public learning."...-From the foreword by Willard L. Boyd, President Emeritus, Field Museum of Natural History

"...I was amazed at how well [The Museum Experience] held up over 20 years and how many insights I relearned. ... I think it's still an essential text for the field and one that many people could learn a lot from in present form in 2011."...
- Nina Simon, Museum 2.0

"...I love this book! I still think it is one of the most 'read-able' and applicable books in our field. It is perfect for students or professionals, particularly those who are new to the visitor perspective."... -Kris Morrissey, Director, Museology Graduate Program, University of Washington

"...Rereading this book really brought home to me what a classic it is. The core sense of it is still completely relevant; it still holds up completely as one of the three or four essential primers for museum professionals. Another part of the beauty of the book is its brevity and, hence, its clarity."...
-Daniel Spock, Minnesota Historical Society

About this edition

• Publisher: Howells House / Whalesback Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0929590074
• ISBN 13: 9780929590073
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228