Evaluation of Permanent Displays
During the summer of 2004, IRIS began evaluating its permanent displays at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and the American Museum of Natural Hisotry in New York City. The evaluation found that the IRIS/USGS museum display attracted more visitors than other exhibits located in the same gallery at both museums. What visitors at both museums liked best about the exhibit was that it was real-time and up-to-date. The display succeeded in increasing public awareness of seismology and earth science by surprising visitors with the frequency of earthquakes everyday and showing them were earthquakes occur.
Examples of Visitor Responses
“[It was] very interesting to see what just happened only a few minutes ago.”
“[I like that it is] up to date, and I heard in the news this morning that there was in earthquake in Illinois this morning and there it was.”
“I was surprised at the number of earthquakes it showed, and how it was able to show all the locations.”
Articles and References about Permanent Displays
Smith, M, Opportunities to Make Science Museum Visits More Meaningful: Results from a Real Time Earthquake Exhibition Summative Evaluation, Smith, M, PowerPoint presentation, Visitors Studies Association Annual Meeting, July 2005
Articles
Hennet, C.B., J.J. Taber, G.E. van der Vink, C.R. Hutt, Earthquakes in Museums, Seismological Research Letters, Vol 74, No. 5, 628-634.
Smith, M., J. Taber, and M. Hubenthal, 2004, Providing Seismic Data to the Public: Evaluation and Impact of IRIS/USGS Museum Displays, Eos Trans. AGU, 85 (47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract S53B-0215.
