Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience [Paperback]

John H Falk (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1598741632 | ISBN-13: 978-1598741636 | Publication Date: May 15, 2009

Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs. He identifies five key types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. Through an understanding of how museums shape and reflect their personal and group identity, Falk is able to show not only how museums can increase their attendance and revenue, but also their meaningfulness to their constituents.

Editorial Reviews

Review

John Falk’s determined focus on the visitor’s experience continues to transform our understanding of the relationship between museums and their audiences. Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience demonstrates that Falk remains the leading voice in the field of museum learning. For the first time he moves beyond theory and proposes a model that museums can use to explore how to serve their visitors in more meaningful ways. -Nannette V. Maciejunes, Columbus Museum of Art

John Falk's most exciting work reframes frustrating old questions in new ways that bring immediate clarity. In this important book, Falk shifts the old issue of visitor segmentation away from stable traits to ephemeral dispositions. His new formulation shows us visitors who actually seem to belong to the same species as ourselves, and whose differences relate to understandable differences in the ways that they perceive and use exhibitions. –Jay Rounds, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Museum Studies, University of Missouri St. Louis, and former editor of the Exhibitionist Journal

This book should be read by anyone serious about visitor experiences in museums. Falk reconceptualises the field from a wholistic perspective using the ‘lens’ of visitor identity and motivation. The model he proposes will shape and inform the nature, design and understanding of visitor experiences in free-choice learning environments. –Roy Ballantyne, University of Queensland, and editor of Visitor Studies Journal

“Falk (Oregon State), a researcher in the field of museum functions, chooses an important time to present a model to enhance the effectiveness of all kinds of museums. The world economic scene is rather grim and traditional sources of support unreliable. He offers a work in progress, a theoretical model (the Museum Visitor Experience Model), to help visualize the relationships between museum and visitor, emphasizing the types of experience, not visitors. He believes these experiences should 'extend, confirm, and reinforce the visitor's existing beliefs,' rather than communicate new information. These arguments present a major challenge for museums in the 21st century. Recommended.”

--CHOICE

“Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience is a call to action; Falk’s new book is inspiring. After closing the back cover, as a visitor researcher, I wanted to immediately locate the instrument, get out on the museum floor, and try it out with visitors. … Real-life, real-time applicability is what I believe sets this model apart. It becomes a usable tool in the museum professional’s toolkit with a focus on fluid predictability, not segmentation.... In addition to presenting a typology of visitor needs, Identity is a mantra for visitor-centered understanding and practice in museums. In fact, his model can be seen as a vehicle by which to re-examine the public value of museums.”
-Kathleen Tinworth (Denver Museum of Nature & Science), Museum Anthropology

From the Inside Flap

Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 301 pages
• Publisher: Left Coast Press (May 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598741632
• ISBN-13: 978-1598741636
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Way of Looking at Visitors that Attend Museums, April 12, 2011

By 

Stephen Ashton "Stephen" (Orem, UT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience (Paperback)

I was extremely impressed with Falk's book. In this book he talks about five museum visitor identities: Explorer, Facilitator, Experience Seeker, Professional/Hobbyist, and Recharger. Instead of thinking of general demographics of museum visitors, such as age, race, gender, etc., Falk recommends thinking of visitors in one of these five visitor identities. Doing so will help the museum better meet the needs of the community.

I currently work at a museum complex in Lehi, Utah called Thanksgiving Point, and I look forward to incorporating the ideas in Falk's book into our practices here. In doing so I hope to see not only an increase in revenue, but also an increase in the public's perceived value of our museum complex. I plan on conducting research to test many of the ideas presented in this book.

This book has caused me to rethink how I look at visitors that attend museums. It has shown me how I can more fully focus on their needs, instead of just thinking of the objectives of the museum. It is an excellent read for anyone in the museum field or anyone interested in free-choice learning in general.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New approach to operations of a public museum, November 14, 2010

By 

John D. Farr "Johnbbq" (Encampment, WY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience (Paperback)

If you are involved with any public facility and what some fresh insight to the operations of a museum, this will help you and your Board re-evaluate what you do in a fresh new way--seeing it from the visitors point of view!