This paper reports findings from a study of how a guidebook was used by pairs of visitors touring a historic house. We describe how the guidebook was incorporated into their visit in four ways: shared listening, independent use, following one another, and checking in on each other. We discuss how individual and groupware features were adopted in support of different visiting experiences, and illustrate how that adoption was influenced by social relationships, the nature of the current visit, and any museum visiting strategies that the couples had. Finally, we describe how the guidebook facilitated awareness between couples, and how awareness of non-guidebook users (strangers) influenced use.

Abstract. Visiting museums is an increasingly popular pastime. Studies have shown that visitors can draw on their museum experience, long after their visit, to learn new things in practical situations. Rather than viewing a visit as a single learning event, we are interested in ways of extending the experience to allow visitors to access online resources tailored to their interests. Museums typically have extensive archives that can be made available online, the challenge is to match these resources to the visitor’s interests and present them in a manner that facilitates exploration and engages the visitor. We propose the use of knowledge level resource descriptions to identify relevant resources and create structured presentations. A system that embodies this approach, which is in use in a UK museum, is presented and the applicability of the approach to the broader semantic web is discussed. 1.

would like to thank our collaborators in these studies: Madeline Gregg and her student teachers

In recent years there has been a growing interest in using new techniques and technologies to enhance interpretation in fine art museums and galleries. There is an interest for example in exploring the ways in which mobile technologies ranging from the basic mobile phone through to personal digital assistants, could provide visitors with access to a range of information which would be tailorable with regard to an individual's interests concerns and the like. These developments are accompanied however by a growing concern, amongst curators and museum managers, that new technologies can undermine the character of the gallery and the ability of visitors to contemplate and enjoy an aesthetic encounter with the object. Developments and innovations need to balance an interest to enrich the interpretive resource with a commitment to preserving and enhancing aesthetic experience. This brief paper discusses the ways in which visitors to a contemporary art gallery used Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) to navigate and explore an exhibition. The PDAs provided the visitor with 'content'- including text, audio and images concerning a selected number of objects. Our own observations are based upon video-based field studies of the ways in which ordinary visitors used the devices during their visit to the gallery. The paper addresses the ways in which visitors used the device and the material it made available to examine objects, both alone and with others, and the consequences of the PDA for how people organised their visit. It concludes with a brief discussion of possible implications of the observations on the design, deployment and evaluation of novel interpretation devices.

This paper explores current applications for handheld devices and questions which of these make full use of the unique attributes of handheld devices in order to facilitate learning in a pedagogically sensible manner. In order to do so, the paper presents a functional framework which analyses handheld application in relation to their use as well as the pedagogical underpinning, if any, that informs their development. Our framework currently consists of seven distinct categories of application, which we term: administrative, referential, interactive, microworld, data collection, location aware and collaborative. We argue that three categories, namely data collection, location aware and collaborative, are particularly suited to learning with handheld devices when they are informed by collaborative, contextual and constructionist learning theories. Furthermore, we contend that applications of the type just outlined deserve further research since they are not attempting to replicate, or even augment, existing learning scenarios but rather they try to create new learning opportunities which would not be possible without (mobile) technology. Finally, the authors introduce a number of applications and learning scenarios that they have developed for handheld devices and explain their position within the framework.

Visitors often tend to visit museums in groups, mainly with family or friends, yet most of the today mobile museum guides focus on supporting the individual visitor. The technology described in this paper allows supporting groups of visitors in addition to individuals by providing contextaware services aimed at supporting the whole group. These include context-aware communication and alerting services that are provided by the museum visitor’s guide system developed in the framework of the PIL (PEACH-Israel) project, as an example case of a larger variety of possible context-aware services. ACM Classification: H5.2 Interaction styles, Screen design.

In this paper we describe a two-part study that was used to establish the requirements for an interactive museum environment for children aged between 5 and 10. The paper outlines how the low-tech interactive environment currently used in the museum was used to produce ideas for a technology-enhanced environment. Author Keywords Children in museums, early evaluation, field observation, gathering requirements, interactive educational activities.

When experts participate in collaborative systems, tension may arise between them and novice contributors. In particular, when experts perceive novices as a bother or a threat, the experts may express territoriality: behaviors communicating ownership of a target of interest. In this paper, we describe the results of a user study of a mobile social tagging system deployed within a museum gallery to a group of novices and experts collaboratively tagging part of the collection. We observed that experts express greater feelings of ownership towards their contributions to the system and the museum in general. Experts were more likely than novices to participate at higher rates and to negatively evaluate contributions made by others. We suggest a number of design strategies to balance experts’ expressions of territoriality so as to motivate their participation while discouraging exclusionary behaviors. Author Keywords Territoriality, experts, novices, collaboration

Abstract not found

This report provides a critical overview of impact evaluation in the museums, archives and libraries sector. The study, funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, consisted largely of a review of the literature published during a five year retrospective period, with a particular emphasis on impact evaluations conducted within the UK. An advisory group, representing all three domains, was also established. The methodologies used in, and the evidence obtained from, these evaluation studies are discussed critically within the broad context of social, learning and economic impact. While there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence and descriptions of best practice in the sector, extensive hard evidence of impact, gathered systematically, is often lacking. The most compelling evidence from the review indicates that the sector has an impact on personal development. There is also a current emphasis on the impact evaluation of special projects and initiatives; a shift in emphasis towards the evaluation of core services will require a corresponding