Open Exhibit

Key Findings

  • 125 museum and science center professionals representing 110 institutions responded to the survey.
  • 30.1% of all respondents and 51.5% of respondents from small institutions produce no interactive computer-based exhibits per year, on average.
  • Nearly 31% of respondents noted that computer-based interactives stay on the floor at their institutions for more than 5 years. This signifies that the exhibits are not keeping pace with technological advances in hardware and software.
  • More than half of all respondents (52.5%), and 60.0% of respondents from small institutions, reported having either 1 or 2 IT staff (full or part time). More than 31% of small museums do not have any dedicated IT staff.

  • View Full Survey Results »

  • Respondents cited the following three barriers to interactive computer-based exhibits as the most significant: not enough technical staff or staff time, inadequate financial resources, and general lack of in-house production experience.
  • The majority of respondents (81%) are “very interested” in the open source software tools that Open Exhibits will offer.
  • Respondents expressed interest in a wide variety of online and in-person training/ professional development strategies.
  • Only 38.2% of respondents (only 29.4% of respondents from small museums) reported having Internet access in the entire exhibit space at their institutions, which indicates that these software products will work best if they can run locally as well as on a network.

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About the Survey

Ideum and ASTC worked together to develop the questions in the Interactive Computer-based Exhibits in Museums & Science Centers: State of the Field survey. Ideum posted the survey on Survey Monkey and encouraged museum and science center professionals to complete the online survey through listservs, blog posts, and email contact with professional associations. Many museum community blogs also further promoted the survey. The survey was conducted in April and May of 2008.