The development of interactive displays has transformed the traditional museum world in the last decade. Visitors are no longer satisfied by simply gazing at worthy displays in glass cases - they expect to have hands-on experience of the objects and be actively involved with the exhibits, learning informally and being entertained simultaneously. Hands-on museums and science centres provide the most remarkable example of how museums are redefining their roles in society - improving access to real objects and real phenomena, so that they can be enjoyed by more people. In recent years museums have been thrust into intense competition for the public's time and money with all branches of the leisure industry, from commercial theme parks to retail shopping and home entertainment. This has upset the traditional stability of the museum and their visitors. A hands-on approach encourages a broader visitor base, which in turn helps to bring in additional revenue at a time of declining public subsidy. Tim Caulton investigates how to create and operate effective exhibitions which achieve their educational objectives through hands-on access. He concludes that the continuing success of hands-on museums and science centres hinges on attaining the very best practice in exhibition design and evaluation, and in all aspects of operations, including marketing and financial and human resource management. Hands-On Exhibitions provides a practical guide to best practice which will be indispensable to all museum professionals and students of museum studies.

In the first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit, Falk and Dierking present research findings to demonstrate people's motivations for visiting museums and how museum professionals can enhance their visitors' experiences.

The author researched ten museums founded prior to 1870, using primary sources. Those chosen comprised a geographically diverse sample of pre-1870 American museums and covered a range of disciplines, among them art, history, and natural science.

The goal of this book is to cull from the last NSF conference, the "best ideas about how children interact with objects & through that interaction acquire new understandings, attitudes, and feelings."

“This is a must-read for the nervous novice as well as the world-weary veteran. The book guides you through every aspect of exhibit making, from concept to completion. The say the devil is in the details, but so is the divine. This carefully crafted tome helps you to avoid the pitfalls in the process, so you can have fun creating something inspirational. It perfectly supports the dictum—if you don’t have fun making an exhibit, the visitor won’t have fun using it.” —Jeff Hoke, Senior Exhibit Designer at Monterey Bay Aquarium and Author of The Museum of Lost Wonder Structured around the key phases of the exhibition design process, this guide offers complete coverage of the tools and processes required to develop successful exhibitions. Intended to appeal to the broad range of stakeholders in any exhibition design process, the book offers this critical information in the context of a collaborative process intended to drive innovation for exhibition design. It is indispensable reading for students and professionals in exhibit design, graphic design, environmental design, industrial design, interior design, and architecture.

This edited book brings together best examples and practices of digital and interactive approaches and platforms from a number of projects based in European countries to foster social inclusion and participation in heritage and culture. It engages with ongoing debates on the role of culture and heritage in contemporary society relating to inclusion and exclusion, openness, access, and bottom-up participation. The contributions address key themes such as the engagement of marginalised communities, the opening of debates and new interpretations around socially and historically contested heritages, and the way in which digital technologies may foster more inclusive cultural heritage practices. They will also showcase examples of work that can inspire reflection, further research, and also practice for readers such as practice-focused researchers in both HCI and design. Indeed, as well as consolidating the achievements of researchers, the contributions also represent concrete approaches to digital heritage innovation for social inclusion purposes. The book’s primary audience is academics, researchers, and students in the fields of cultural heritage, digital heritage, human-computer interaction, digital humanities, and digital media, as well as practitioners in the cultural sector.