The Museum Experience - Paperback

by John H. Falk (Author)

As the first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking integrate their original research from a wide variety of disciplines as well as visitor studies from institutions ranging from science centers and zoos to art and natural history museums. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences. This book is an essential reference for all museum professionals and students of museum studies, and has been used widely for higher education courses in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and has been translated into Japanese and Chinese. Originally published in 1992, the book is now available from Left Coast Press, Inc. as of November 2010.

Author Biography

John H. Falk, known for his work on learning in museums and formerly Director of the Smithsonian Office of Educational Research, has also served on the educational staffs of the Berkeley Botanical Garden and the Lawrence Hail of Science, Berkeley, and directed education at the Smithsonian's Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies. He is President of SLi, a non-profit educational research and museum evaluation company in Annapolis, Maryland.,
Lynn D. Dierking, known for her work on families and learning, is Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Maryland and an adjunct lecturer in the Museum Education Program at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She has served on the educational staff of the Museum of Science, Miami, and the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, and has directed the Science in American Life Curriculum Project at the National Museum of American History.