The Good Guide: A Sourcebook for Interpreters, Docents, and Tour Guides [Paperback]

Alison L. Grinder (Author), E. Sue McCoy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1985 | ISBN-10: 0932541003 | ISBN-13: 978-0932541000

This innovative sourcebook is designed for use by anyone who guides tours or instructs the public in history, art, science and natural history museums, historical organizations, and state and national parks. 'The Good Guide' is an excellent textbook for interpreter training programs and is an invaluable reference for active tour guides. Included are profiles and characteristics of visitors and special groups, methods to facilitate learning on tours, an overview of important learning theories and their application to the institutional or park setting, interpretive strategies, specific procedures for tours, and an interpreter's personal guide for better communication. The authors have incorporated information from many sources: museum educators, volunteers, learning theorists, psychologists, teachers, and from their own experiences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: Ironwood Publishing (July 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932541003
• ISBN-13: 978-0932541000
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Education & Reference > Catalogs & Directories > Directories

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sensible and Useful, July 31, 2000

By 

J. B. Powers ""Macster"" (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good Guide: A Sourcebook for Interpreters, Docents, and Tour Guides (Paperback)

I was given this book when I began my work as a museum interpreter ten years ago. It gives a comprehensive overview of the field. There is information on both how museums have changed and present trends. Theoretical insights about learning theory are developed into realistic applications for planning activities on the museum floor. Part Two on the interpretive process would be improved by some discussion of first person interpretation, a dynamic new way to bring history alive at house museums, outdoor sites, and more traditional history museums. Also, there's room for more discussion of the problems and pitfalls which today's visitors can offer. But I found this book so helpful that I plan to use it in training 150 volunteers and a dozen paid staff at a new museum opening in January, 2001.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good tool for Museum interpretation, December 2, 2004

By 

Branislav Rabotic (Licensed Guide and Lecturer) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good Guide: A Sourcebook for Interpreters, Docents, and Tour Guides (Paperback)

Although presumably somewhat outdated, 'The Good Guide' (published in 1985) remains a useful source of ideas and suggestions especially for museum docents and interpreters, as well as (to a much lesser extent) for Tourist Guides. The authors explain what museum education is and what it should be, what are its goals and principles.

Their text is focused mainly on problems of the interpretation of museum exhibits to children and school groups. This is why they point out various concepts of learning, mostly those relating to very young museum visitors. Consequently, they suggest a few corresponding techniques of interpretation suitable for such an audience.

The best part of this 'sourcebook' gives us pretty clear and usable explanations of various interpretative techniques such as Lecture-Discussion, Inquiry-Discussion and Guided Discovery including their comparative advantages. While these techniques might be applicable to the case of museum interpretation, they can hardly be used in the much more diversified field of general Tour Guiding.

The last chapter is focused on communication skills - both verbal and non-verbal. Though a few observations given here sound instructive, we must bear in mind that the text was written 20 years ago. In the meantime, a lot of titles have been published on the same topic; both the overall philosophy of interpretation and communication techniques have greatly been improved.