Randi Korn, Founding Director of RK&A, a company that partners with all types of cultural organizations to plan and evaluate their work around achieving impact, is the author of Intentional Practic...

Museum information professionals meet the needs of the producers and consumers of museum information resources, yet, little is known of how their own needs are met or what benefits they obtain from being part of a broader professional community. This study presents results from a survey of 283 individuals who were asked about their relationship with the Museum Computer Network, an international professional organization dedicated to supporting the needs of museum information professionals. The results shed light on how professional organizations can meet the needs of individuals who share a common interest in museums and information technology, particularly when those individuals are professionally diverse and geographically distributed. The results can help researchers and practitioners better understand how to build community among museum information professionals, and have implications for all organizations supporting the needs of museum professionals.

BACKGROUND:The use of decision aids (DAs) have been advocated in cancer decisions to help patients understand treatment options and to promote patient involvement in the treatment decision. Although the challenges of involving older patients in treatment decision making have been highlighted, decisional support for older early-stage breast cancer patients has not been established yet. This study reports on the development of a DA prototype and the initial assessment of it.OBJECTIVE:To conduct a preliminary testing of the DA prototype to ensure that the format and information presented is clear and acceptable to patients.RESEARCH DESIGN:Twelve one-on-one interviews were conducted with women over the age of 70 diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer after radiation therapy from an academic cancer centre.RESULTS:The overall impression of the DA prototype was favorable with all participants rating the tool as extremely acceptable. All participants felt that this tool would be helpful for older women with early-stage breast cancer making decisions about treatments and would recommend its use in clinical practice.CONCLUSION:Similar to previous literature, we found that older breast cancer patients experienced difficulties expressing their concerns and found it challenging to participate in treatment decisions. These findings led to the next steps in the development of a DA for older early-stage breast cancer patients.

The role of the facilitator is known to be important in fostering productive interprofessional education (IPE) in the face-to-face (F2F) environment. Online learning can help surmount some of the logistical challenges in IPE by bringing together diverse professionals in multiple geographical locations. Best practices in F2F IPE facilitation are beginning to emerge, but there is scant literature examining IPE facilitation online. What little research exists has focused on the asynchronous environment and suggests that the skill sets of online and F2F facilitators have considerable overlap, but there are further demands in the online setting. This qualitative study sought to examine online synchronous IPE facilitation through the self-reported experiences of seven trained facilitators during a 12-week online course. Data collected through focus groups and targeted interviews were analyzed by the research team using constant comparison techniques. Four major themes were revealed: technology as a dynamic force, reduction in non-verbal cues, evolution of the online IPE group process over time and the importance of co-facilitation. The foundations of IPE facilitation were seen to carry over to the online setting. This study has implications for the training of IPE facilitators and for the design of online IPE learning experiences.

The study aims to investigate the information needs and unique illness experiences of older women with early stage breast cancer. Breast cancer patients have expressed a high need for information to help them cope with their disease and treatment decision making. Satisfying information needs can also improve patient outcomes including perceptions of control, levels of distress, and psychological well-being. Focus groups and one patient interview were conducted investigating the informational needs of patients 70 years or older who were diagnosed with stage I breast cancer. Women identified their experiences and information needs related to diagnosis, participation in treatment decision making, treatment onset, and unexpected life changes. They provided several suggestions to healthcare professionals related to breast cancer treatment. The study's findings increase our understanding of older breast cancer patients' needs and provide a foundation for the development of a decision aid to help patients better understand their treatment options.

In late April 2010, the Museum Studies Program in the Faculty of Information celebrated its 40-year history as a graduate program at the University of Toronto (U of T) by hosting a three-day conference at Hart House dedicated to museology. Founded in 1969, the U of T program is Canada’s oldest Museum Studies Program. With the explicit aim of creating a forum for discussing the historical and contemporary trajectories of museological research and practices, Taking Stock: Museum Studies and Museum Practices in Canada drew together an Englishand French-speaking community of approximately 150 scholars, museum professionals, and graduate students from across Canada, USA, and UK. Organized by Professors Christine Castle, Lisa Hunter, Lynne Teather, and Jennifer Carter (Chair) and conference coordinator, Nina Boric, Taking Stock had the threefold intentions of: (1) bringing together a network of scholar practitioners to explore the range of theories and practices of contemporary and historical museology in Canada, (2) mobilizing new research communities, and (3) critically engaging the issues that characterize contemporary museology. Co-organizers hoped the conference would help shape professional and pedagogic practices to come in museums, academic institutions, and beyond. Toward these ends, Taking Stock addressed a number of contemporary themes that occupy researchers and practitioners both in Canada and abroad, ranging from curation and exhibition pedagogy, to First Nations museology, museum management, professional development, research partnerships, civic engagement, and sustainability. We invited the Editor-in-Chief of this journal, Dr. Robert R. Janes, to be our keynote speaker. Of the several distinguished Canadian museologists we originally identified for this task, we found Janes’ probing of the contemporary relevance of museums as social institutions to be timely, daring, and most importantly, constructive in its suggestions for fundamentally rethinking the capacity of cultural heritage institutions to become active interventionists on the stage of world issues. Janes advocates for institutions with vision, agency, and having a crucial role to play in addressing issues of sustainability, citizenry, and social ethics (Janes 2009). Significantly, these themes surfaced several times over the course of the conference as the subjects of formal presentations and ongoing discussions over coffee and lunch,

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements We wish to thank the Editorial Board of Museum Management and Curatorship and the Editor-in-Chief for the opportunity to publish these articles. We would also like to acknowledge the enthusiastic, timely and thoughtful advice provided by the 15 referees who were selected to review these papers. We are grateful for their generous contributions of time and expertise. Notes 1. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) formed in 1961 comprises 30 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Transform, transforming, and transformative are common terms for describing museum spaces, the creation of objects on display, and experiences for visitors. But is there evidence that museums profoundly change visitors through their objects, collections, exhibitions, public programs, and websites? The nature of transformational museum experiences and potential 'triggers for transformation' are the focus of this article. Two case studies describe ways in which visitors articulate change they have experienced. Included are projects about teachers and artists during an intense two-week summer institute in an interdisciplinary museum and about visitors to a traveling exhibition highlighting the role Canada plays in international development. Individuals' comments and questions indicated that experiences with authentic objects and the unexpected, highly emotional responses, new cultural and attitudinal understandings, as well as motivation to become more proactive in the way they live their lives, may have been triggers for transformational experiences.

Abstract Two models for professional development in the arts are described in this paper. One model involves summer institutes complemented by autumn/winter workshops and teacher‐led action research projects, in partnership with performing arts organizations and museums. Another model engages all staff members in a school in workshops and individual learning projects over the school year. In both programmes, teachers and artists are brought together with the aim of increasing artistic sensibilities and skills of teachers. Data collected over a two‐year period included observations, questionnaires, interviews, and portfolios. From these data and the research literature, a three‐level matrix to describe teacher transformation was developed. Each participant was placed in the transformation matrix, based on a detailed analysis of the many forms of data collected. The application of the matrix is illustrated by profiling four teachers, selected independently by three researchers, as representative of the full...

The appeal of the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, a site visited by more than half a million visitors a year, is undeniable. One of the reasons for this appeal, we believe, is the fact that many people today feel increasingly disconnected from the natural world and therefore seek places that rekindle connections to nature. In this paper, we explore (a) how this immersive environment offers visitors connections to the natural world and restorative experiences, and (b) how far restorative experiences can raise ecological knowledge and action. Over a four-month period, we interviewed six staff about their own and visitors’ perceptions of the Butterfly Conservatory. We also conducted structured conversational interviews with 45 visitors 18 years and older at the Butterfly Conservatory and asked them to complete exit questionnaires. Observational field notes provided additional data for this study. We discuss our findings in relation to an environmental psychology framework that identifies four properties of restorative experiences—being away, fascination, extent or immersion, and compatibility. To this framework, we add a fifth and significant dimension—synergy from and with multi-sensory experiences. Our research suggests that visitors highly value being close to and connected with nature. Finally, restorative experiences do not necessarily translate into learning about stewardship or into raising ecological awareness in visitors. Rather, the restorative nature of the conservatory experience seems to overpower the ecological messages staff hoped people would take away from their visit.

AbstractThis article examines approaches to creating museum Web sites that offer quality experiences to online users. In six case studies, museum Web developers in the U.S. and Canada describe how they have made the most of available human and financial resources. The development history of each site offers insights into the origins of a design and its subsequent versions, and describes the influence of institutional missions, philosophies, success indicators—and financial and human resources, the most crucial factors. The study found considerable variety in the backgrounds, expertise, titles and training of people developing Web sites within institutions. Web teams developed “exchange” experiences through online discussion, and by creating links among users, or between museum staff and users. In three case studies, Web sites encouraged visitors to cycle between online and on‐site museum visits. Web developers describe using quantitative and qualitative online audience research strategies. WebTrendsTM software has enabled Web teams to report complex log analyses. Creating online experiences in partnership with users is the intention of Web developers.

cards invite and potentially empower visitors to voice their responses and opinions about a museum exhibition. They are a useful but often underutilized source of information on visitor experience. In this article we report on the analysis of 3,365 visitor comment cards introduced in Phaedra Livingstone's article, "The Voices in Your Head" (pp. 13-16). The comments were collected over a three-year period in the context of the Ontario Science Centre's exhibition A Question of Truth, curated by Hooley McLaughlin. In November 1996, the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) in Toronto, Canada, created this innovative exhibition, which views science as a human and social activity located in culture and predominant worldviews. The exhibition opened after five years of intense planning, negotiation, and design. With its provocative title, A Question of Truth examines questions about the nature of science, how ideas are formed, and how cultural and political conditions affect the actions of individual scientists.1 A Question of Truth has created controversy precisely because it questions the pursuits of science and acknowledges, in a rather confrontational way, a historical legacy of moral, ethical, and social repercussions.

Abstract This article describes how two art museums have used the results of audience research for institution‐wide planning. Results and outcomes are reported from a visitor audit at the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain), and from a survey of Black cultural tourists and local African Americans visiting The Art Institute of Chicago. A follow‐up interview five years later with the head of communications at the Tate Gallery highlights how exhibit developers and museum staff used visitor feedback and response to improve visitor care, and ultimately visitor experience. A conference presentation a year after the audience research was conducted at the Art Institute and an exhibition two years following are indications of the extent to which the African American audience research project had an institutional impact. The article concludes with a review of helpful methods and suggestions for other institutions.

A policy question that arises in any jurisdiction where there is some diversity of postsecondary institutional types is whether there should be formal arrangements for co-ordination among groupings of different type institutions, and if so, what form these arrangements should take. This paper examines questions related to co-ordination between postsecondary sectors in Canada. We conclude that the Canadian provinces, with one important exception, seem to be content to maintain the center of gravity for co-ordination at levels below the system, by either facilitating voluntary inter-sectoral arrangements and encouraging interaction between sectors, or leaving these matters largely at the discretion of institutions.

In response to what is envisaged as a crisis in scientific and technological literacy, various organizations and governmental agencies have put forward recommendations for enriching students' science and technology experiences in formal and informal learning environments. This paper examines one such organization — the Professional Engineers Ontario — and their “Innovators in the School” initiative. Through this student outreach programme, engineers, scientists and technologists volunteer their time to visit elementary and secondary level students, encouraging them to pursue science, technology and engineering careers. In particular, this research identifies issues that the Innovators (interestingly, over half are women) consider to be important for promoting a positive image of science to young people. First, the paper considers what an ‘image’ of science might potentially be. Second, it addresses the question of how Innovators and other educators (teachers, policy-makers, curriculum planning teams) might promote this positive image in the classroom and school.