We were happy to see two new ExhibitFiles case studies posted by participants in the PI Summit, held July 25-26 in Washington, D.C. Liza Pryor of the Science Museum of Minnesota wrote about Science Buzz, and Elizabeth Fleming of the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, wrote about Flip It, Fold It, Figure It Out. Like a number of other exhibitions described in earlier case studies, both were funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a U.S. federal agency.

As anyone in the informal science education field with NSF funding now knows, documenting the impact of the work is an increasingly high priority. NSF issued a Framework for Assessing the Impact of Informal Science Education Projects (PDF) earlier this year to guide grantees, and future proposals will need to address impacts laid out in this publication.

But defining intended impacts can be a challenge in the rich and multifacted world of informal, lifelong learning, and assessing whether or not we’ve achieved these impacts can be even tougher. In a later reflection added as a comment about her case study, Liza notes one challenge she faces in assessing the impact of Science Buzz: “We’re working on our summative evaluation,” she says, “but we don’t have anything to compare our data TO. We’ve got the data from the Pew internet study, but it’s not too helpful. I’m particularly interested in studies of online communities. What’s a decent participation rate? Any way, without resorting to discourse analysis, to figure out what people are learning?”

Maybe this online community can give Liza some help. In fact, we’ll be posting soon about how we’re thinking about this in relation to ExhibitFiles itself.

ExhibitFiles members will be participating in the ISE PI Summit 2008 , July 25-26, when leaders of informal science education projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) gather here in Washington, D.C. More than 180 projects will be represented at the Summit, including not only exhibitions, but a range of media, from youth and community programs to broadcast media and online games.

NSF has been supporting the development of ExhibitFiles, so the site can serve as a resource for the science exhibition field. Exhibits people typically rely on personal memories and social networks to fill in the gaps; but the high level of turnover in the field, and retirement and passing of older colleagues, mean much of the history is being lost. By building a collaborative community site with a rich and growing set of exhibition records at its core, it is our hope that together we will preserve this history and support development of a culture of critique. Many NSF-funded exhibition projects, old and new, have already posted case studies, and we look forward to seeing more. Kathy McLean and Wendy Hancock of the ExhibitFiles team will be at the Summit later this week to help anyone who hasn’t yet registered.

The gathering is organized by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), founded in 2007 with NSF support, which is housed at ASTC. CAISE partner organizations include Oregon State University (OSU), the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE), and Visitor Studies Association (VSA).

Are there topics you, or others you know, consider “unexhibitable”? The AAM’s National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME) wants to hear about them. The Fall 2008 issue of the NAME journal, Exhibitionist, will consider this and related questions, and the editor, Gretchen Jennings, and Boston Museum of Science exhibit developer Maureen McConnell are looking for comments and reflections now. We also hope you’ll share any case studies and reviews here on ExhibitFiles to build up our collective record. We’ve already seen some examples (was the House of Terror in Budapest a concept that would have been considered impossible 30 years ago?).

More specifically, what Gretchen and Maureen want to know is: If there are ideas or topics you consider to be “unexhibitable” — that is, incapable of being made into an engaging museum exhibition — why is that? These are some of the reasons people have already mentioned:

- too controversial or sensitive
- too violent
- too revolting or disgusting
- too abstract
- too ordinary or insignificant
- untimely – could/could not have been exhibited years ago (or perhaps could e in a few years), but not now
- constrained by place – my museum/country could/could not do it, as opposed to another museum/country

On the other hand, if you think there is nothing that cannot be exhibited, could you share your thinking? Post your comments right here in the ExhibitFiles blog — or write to Gretchen or Maureen. If you’re willing to have your comments considered for inclusion in the issue, please respond by June 15 and identify yourself so they can contact you.

For those new to ExhibitFiles, you may be wondering what you can do now that you’ve set up an account. Here are a few ideas:Add a photo to your profile—Log in, click on the Profile tab, and look for “update thumbnail.” Choose “upload a new image” and browse your computer to locate an image of yourself. Mark the part you want as your thumbnail by clicking and dragging the box. Choose “edit profile” to add blog and Flickr feeds.Comment on a case study or review—When you comment, the person who posted the case study or review gets a message and knows someone’s been reading and thinking about the post.Favorite a post—As more material is added to the site, being able to browse by “popularity” helps users find their way around, and the more often a post is favorited, the higher its “popularity” ranking.Contact another member—If you want to get directly in touch with another registered ExhibitFiles member, you can usually contact them through a link in their profile (“contact this member”). To allow other members to contact you, check off a box you’ll find when you edit your profile.Create a case study, write a review—You can work on a draft, email it to someone else, and even after you publish your case study or review, you can still edit it.Tag—Actually, you don’t even have to be logged in to add a tag to a case study or review. This helps make the browse page more useful to everyone.And another tip:Use Firefox—If you don’t have this browser, you can download it free here.

ExhibitFiles reaches a milestone April 23 with the first anniversary of the site’s opening. Started with the support of a committed core group of exhibits people, the site has grown to include more than 650 members from around the world, who have generously shared their experiences and reflections in more than 100 case studies and reviews.

Over the past few months, we’ve fixed some bugs, added open tagging, and built a new browse page that lets users search and sort in a variety of ways. Based on feedback from members, we’re improving image uploading and making plans for a way to post media files with short notes as a quick alternative to longer case studies and reviews.

We also plan to start using this blog to highlight themes that have begun to emerge across a number of case studies and reviews. There’s been encouragement to take on issues that may seem like “downers,” advice about how to work with artists in science centers, the observation “that solid exhibit tradecraft… can make even the silliest subject engaging,” and much more. There’s a lot of experience and wisdom gathered here.

We’re grateful to all who’ve contributed, and to the National Science Foundation for its support. And we look forward to the next year, and beyond.

Wendy

ExhibitFiles is winner of the Best of the Web award for museum professional sites, annnounced today during the Museums & the Web conference in Montreal. The award recognizes achievement in web design for sites that support distributed activity and innovative work among museum professionals.

Congratulations and many thanks to the 636 members who’ve joined up, contributed content, and helped to critique the site, and especially to the core group that’s guided our work. And many thanks to all of the developers and designers at Ideum who’ve been working with us to conceive and build the site.

Wendy

Here’s an opportunity that may be of interest to ExhibitFiles members, with a March 28 deadline for submission:

ASTC seeks to recognize small and large science centers and museums for recent and extraordinary accomplishments in exhibitions, education programs, technology applications, theater and film programming, visitor services, research and evaluation.

Winning visitor experiences must have achieved a tangible impact or lasting effect. The visitor experience must have been implemented by or for an ASTC science center or museum since January 2005.

Each award will consist of an etched glass “Edgie” presented during the ASTC Annual Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, plus a paid registration to the 2008 ASTC Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

New deadline is March 28, 2008. For details and nomination forms, visit www.astc.org/about/awards/leading_edge.htm

2007 Recipients
Clore Garden of Science – EcoSphere
MIDE - Museo Interactivo de Economía
OMSI – STARS Project

2006 Recipients
Hands On! Regional Museum – Eastman Discovery Lab
The Tech Museum of Innovation - TechTags

2005 Recipients
Denver Museum of Nature & Science – Space Odyssey
Omaha Children’s Museum – Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition
Saint Louis Science Center – Taylor Community Science Resource Center

Contact: Diane Frendak, dfrendak@astc.org; 202/783-7200 x112.

Are you coming to Los Angeles for the ASTC Annual Conference, October 13-16?

Come by the ASTC Resource Center in the Exhibit Hall on Saturday or Sunday. We’ll have Internet access, so we can help you join—or even take your picture and add it to your profile on the spot.

On Sunday morning, join us in the lobby of the Wilshire, 7:15-8:30am, for for breakfast and conversation (there’s free wireless, so you can get help here, too).

And post a review of an exhibition you see while you’re in LA. Help ExhibitFiles grow!