Books I Want to Read on Museum Education in 2017

After I read a blog post from Museum Hack called Ten Inspiring Museum Reads for 2017, I was inspired to write my own list of I want to read about the museum education field in 2017 except I created a list of books written for the field. I used Amazon and American Alliance of Museums websites to research available literature for this field. Keep in mind not all books written about the museum education field are included on here because this blog post would take you all days to finish reading. Each book includes descriptions of what they are about as well as publication information, and I also explain why I put these books on the list. The books on this list are in no specific order; I chose these books based on when I first came across them. I will later discuss the books I already have on the field in another future blog post. Enjoy the list! What books do you want to read this year, both on museum education field and other books capture your interests? Do you have a book you have read on the museum education field?

I want to read the following:
1. The Manual of Museum Learning by Brad King (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2nd edition, 2015, ISBN 978–1442258471): This book offers practical advice for creating successful learning experiences in museums and other institutions including galleries, zoos, and botanical gardens. The first edition was published in 2007, and in the second edition focuses on the ways museums staff and the departments they work in can facilitate experience that point out connections between institutional strategic planning and its approach to museum learning. The book acknowledges that not all institutions run the same way so it identifies various approaches and enables museums to find the paths for which they are individually best suited, that will help them identify their own unique approaches to facilitating museum learning. I put this book on the list because in the past I thought that each department work separately to fulfill one mission but the longer I worked in the museum world the more I realize that education is a part of museums’ mission. Also, I read a book review of King’s book in the Journal of Museum Education, the publication of the Museum Education Roundtable. It is important to recognize that museum learning should be incorporated into a part of museums’ strategic planning. I want to see the various approaches King presents in the book to have a better understanding of how museum education is presented in different types of institutions.

2. Engagement and Access: Innovative Approaches for Museums by Juilee Decker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015, ISBN: 978–1442238756): The book addresses how museums forge two-way communication and engaged participation by using community curation, social media, collaboration, and inquiry-based learning. Decker collected case studies that advocate for doing and listening, or in other words the institutions mentioned in the case studies can understand the importance of meeting the audience’s needs both onsite and online. This book is part of a series called Innovative Approaches for Museums which offers case studies, written by scholars and practitioners from museums, galleries, and other institutions; each case study present original, transformative, and sometimes wholly re-invented methods, techniques, systems, theories, and actions that demonstrate innovative work being done in the museum and cultural sector throughout the world. The contributors come from various institutions and each volume offers ideas and support to those working in museums while serving as a resource and primer, as much as inspiration, for students and the museum staff and faculty training future professionals who will further develop future innovative approaches. This book is on my list because I am interested in seeing different ways other museums approach engagement and access for their visitors.

3. Museum Learning: Theory and Research as Tools for Enhancing Practice by Jill Hohenstein and Theano Moussouri (Routledge, 2016, ISBN: 978–1138901131): This book is not released yet but the reason why I included this book is I think it is important to review educational theories to make sure museum educators revitalize their skills for school and public programming. I hope to gain both methods to retain my skills as a museum educator and different insights on how learning as well as teaching in museums would benefit our education.

4. Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience by John H Falk (Routledge, 2016, ISBN: 978–1598741636): Falk’s book reiterates that understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Visitor experiences have various meanings, such as personal drives, group identity, memory, and leisure performances, for each individual and that experience extends beyond the four walls of an institution in time and space. Falk reveals there are five different types of visitors who attend museums and identifies the processes that inspire people to visit time and time again. I would like to read this book since by finding out different aspects on why people visit museums it would help museum professionals like myself to increase our ability to retain visitors as well as gain more visitors to our museums.

5. The Multisensory Museum: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Touch, Sound, Smell, Memory, and Space by Nina Levent and Alvaro Pascual-Leone (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014, ISBN: 978–0759123540): Levent and Pascual-Leone’s book brought together scholars and museum professionals to highlight new trends and opportunities for using scent, sound, and touch to offer more immersive experiences as well as diverse sensory engagement for visually- and other impaired patrons. The book also reveals that education researchers discover museums as unique educational playgrounds that allow for various learning styles, active and passive exploration, and participatory learning. I include this book on this list because I believe museums can provide people of all abilities access to education, and I find the psychological and museum connection would be fascinating to get a more in-depth knowledge of.

6. Creating the Visitor-centered Museum by Peter Samis and Mimi Michaelson (Routledge, 2016, ISBN: 978–1629581910): Samis and Michaelson’s book brought up numerous questions that are answered with cases and additional resources to help transform their museums into visitor-centered museums: What does the transformation to a visitor-centered approach do for a museum? How are museums made relevant to a broad range of visitors of varying ages, identities, and social classes? Does appealing to a larger audience force museums to “dumb down” their work? What internal changes are required? I think we can always learn more ways to help adapt our museums to the changing viewpoints of visitors.

7. The Museum Effect: How Museums, Libraries, and Cultural Institutions Educate and Civilize Society by Jeffrey K. Smith (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014, ISBN: 978–0759122956): The book explores how museums, libraries, and cultural institutions provide opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who they are, were, and might be. According to Smith, the “museum effect” is a process through which cultural institutions educate and civilize us as individuals and as societies. I think it is an interesting book to read since I have known from when I was a kid that museums can provide ways to educate visitors and help them identify with what museums offer. By reading this book, I would gain another perspective on how my work as a museum professional can affect our society.

8. Contemporary Curating and Museum Education by Carmen Mörsch, Angeli Sachs, and Thomas Sieber (will be released February 2017): The writers of this book share insight that international scholars discovered as they answer the question: How does museum work change if we conceive of curating and education as an integrated practice? This is the second book that has not been released yet but I believe I would enjoy this one because not only it would supplement the knowledge I gained about creating an exhibit to design an education plan through a NYCMER workshop I attended, Exhibition Design for Educators, but the book can offer additional insights that would allow me to explore more the intertwining of curatorship and education.

9. All Together Now: Museums and Online Collaborative Learning by William B. Crow and Herminia Wei-Hsin Din (American Alliance of Museums, 2011, ISBN: 978–1933253619): Crow and Wei-Hsin Din’s book discusses the potential of online learning for museum professionals and visitors from all over the world. The book reveals that online collaborative learning offers museums and visitors new possibilities for learning, both in small, “narrowcast” groups and at the larger institutional level. The writers included extensive case studies and practical advice for museum educators. As an online learner, I think the concept of museum education in the online community is fascinating and would be a possible move for more museums to engage in online learning. I also think it would be able to help the museum education field reach out to more people as fewer field trips are booked each year due to limited school funding. I also like that this book is endorsed by EdCom (American Alliance of Museum’s education group) and the Media and Technology Committee of AAM because it reassures me as a reader that the United States’ museums organization sees online learning as a possible outlet for museum education to branch out to various audiences inside and outside the museum.

I am sure that this list is not set in stone, and I will continue to find more books that I will add to my list for 2017. I hope you all read many books this year, museum education related or not. Thank you all so much for reading! I really appreciate all of your support for this blog, and if you know of anyone who is interested in the museum education field please refer them to this blog. Thank you to all of you who are currently following this blog. It really means a lot that you continue to be interested in what I have to write about. I am so touched that there are more and more people reading these posts. Thank you all again and stay tuned for more blog posts.