Exhibit labels: an interpretive approach

Beverly Serrell

Rowman Altamira, 1996 - Art - 261 pages

In her new work, Beverly Serrell presents the reader with excellent guidelines on the process of exhibit label planning, writing, design, and production. One of the museum field’s leading consultants and label writers, Serrell has expanded upon her earlier book, Making Exhibit Labels, which has been a standard in the field since its initial publication. Exhibit Labels provides ample information on the art of label writing for diverse audiences, and explores the theoretical and interpretive considerations of placing labels within an exhibition. An examination of the impact of technological advances on the label-making process is also included. Exhibit Labels is a vital reference tool for all museum professionals.

What people are saying

Review: Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach

User Review  - Laura - Goodreads

This is a fabulous introduction to interpretive writing as a whole, not just exhibit "labels." Reading it while attending the NAI Annual Workshop worked out perfectly, because Serrell nails every ...

Review: Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach

User Review  - John - Goodreads

I know what you're thinking - of course I'd love to read a book about exhibit labels, but which book to read? This is your book, my friend, this is your book. This is actually very pleasant to read ...

Contents

• OVERVIEW 1 Behind It All A Big Idea A powerful exhibition idea will clarify limit and focus the nature and scope of an exhibition and provide a w...: 1
• What Are Interpretive Labels? Interpretive labels stories they are narratives not lists of facts Any label that serves to explain guide question inform or ...: 9
• Types of Labels in Exhibitions Every label in an exhibition has a specific purpose that needs to make sense within the organization of the whole But ...: 21
• 4 CONSIDERING THE AUDIENCE 37 Who Is the Audience and What Do They Want? Museum visitors are diverse group of fairly welleducated m...: 37
• Learning Styles Learning styles along with other educational models and theories have some important but limited applications for the unconvention...: 51
• Levels of Information and Modalities Creating exhibit experiences through different types of lables and different modes of presenting information wi...: 65
• Writing VisitorFriendly Labels The overall goals for a visitorfriendly label style are to appeal to a broad audience to used by the majority of visitors a...: 83
• Selecting the Right Reading Level Writing clearly does not mean writing simplistically but it does mean writing for people who are not experts in the ...: 95
• Bilingual Labels Bilingual labels help a museum to be politically correct but they are not easy quick or cheap to produce: 101
• Labels That Ask Questions The best questions in labels are the ones visitors themselves would ask: 105
• Getting Started and Getting It Done Resist the temptation to begin writing actual label copy until all of the other frontend exhibition tasks have been ...: 111
• The Number of Words It is a museum exhibition not an encyclopedia not a library and visitors should be allowed to feel they are there primarily to l...: 125
• Evaluation During Development Getting feedback from the visitors at all stages of exhibit development and label writingbefore you start during roug...: 131
• Making Words and Images Work Together One of the most important and difficult things to achieve with interpretive labels is getting reading and vi...: 147
• Labels for Interactive Exhibits Labels for interactive exhibits need to be customized so that they respond to and serve the specific design of the intera...: 165
• Electronic Labels and Hypermedia Many of the principles for good exhibitions good labels and good typography can be directly applied to electroni...: 177
• Typographic Design Typography affects both the mood and the message therefore label writers and designers must agree on how the type will look i...: 189
• Production and Fabrication No easy answers here Production and fabrication methods and material for making labels are constantly changing and ev...: 207
• Evaluation After Opening Summative evaluation of exhibitions tells you what actually did work as expected what unexpected but appropriate outco...: 219
• Ten Deadly Sins and 14 Helpful Research Findings Many common mistakes are avoidable and some findings from visitors studies guide the way: 233
• Glossary: 237
• Resources: 245
• Bibliography: 248
• Figure Credits: 256
• Index: 258

About the author

Beverly Serrell brings an unusual range of experience as a museum practitioner to Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. Since 1979, she has been an exhibit and evaluation consultant with art, history, natural history, and science museums, as well as zoos and aquariums. Before then, she was head of a museum education department for eight years, and had shorter stints as a high school science teacher and a research lab technician. Serrell holds an MA in science teaching in informal settings and a BS in biology. In 1995, she was a guest scholar at The J. Paul Getty Museum. She has been a frequent museum visitor all her life.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Exhibit labels: an interpretive approach; G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
• Author: Beverly Serrell
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Rowman Altamira, 1996
• ISBN: 0761991069, 9780761991069
• Length: 261 pages
• Subjects: Art / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / General; Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology