Currently viewing the tag: "Interpretation"

Video Tour of the Saint Peter State Hospital Museum

by Joe Hoover on February 28, 2011 · 8 Comments · in Advice, Media, Podcast

One of the advantages of this job is being able to get out to museums less traveled and in the case of the Saint Peter State Hospital Museum which dwells within the grounds of a maximum security psychiatric hospital – reservations are required. However, that day, the volunteers and staff were holding an open house [...]

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Questions you hope no one will ask

by David Grabitske on September 29, 2010 · No Comments · in Interpretation

This was a session at the AASLH Conference in Oklahoma City last week. The point was that the emotionally charged questions and those questions that require a complex, nuanced answer are precisely the kinds of questions that bring people to visit historical organizations. Although these may make tour guides cringe, these kinds of questions bring [...]

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Reconciling Modern Users with History

by David Grabitske on March 29, 2010 · No Comments · in Information Technology, Interpretation, Local History Standards, Nonprofit Issues

The Sunday March 21, 2010, St. Paul Pioneer Press carried an interview between Dan Carr of “The Collaborative” and Gov. Tim Pawlenty. In the interview, Gov. Pawlenty makes a statement that “we have a government that is kind of a 1940s industrial model in a world that is becoming an iPad. Those two things are going [...]

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Vertically integrated all along

by David Grabitske on December 2, 2009 · No Comments · in Collections, Digitization, Exhibits, Information Technology, Interpretation, Visitation

For decades business leaders have suggested that governments and nonprofits would do well to follow the example of business by becoming more specialized, flatter organizations. A recent Wall Street Journal blog talks about how some businesses are now reversing their decades old pursuit of specialization in favor of vertical integration: controlling raw materials, manufacturing, and distribution. [...]

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Season Opener

by David Grabitske on April 21, 2009 · 1 Comment · in Interpretation, Visitation

It’s mid-April, which takes me back to my days of working as an interpreter at historic sites. At this time of year the buildings are cleaned, last minute minor repairs are performed, kits of clothing and props are issued and inspected, and all of this is done to prepare for the public. Of all the [...]

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