The Manual of Museum Learning
The second edition of The Manual of Museum Learning offers a comprehensive approach to learning in museums and related institutions. Bridging theory and practice through a collection of case studies and success stories, this new edition takes a holistic approach to learning in the museum, which emphasizes the importance of making learning and education institution-wide priorities.
"This Manual is essential for all museum leaders and for anyone who seeks to understand the changing forces that are redefining the nature of a learning society."Hooley McLaughlin, Sessional Instructor, University of Toronto and Vice-President, Science Experience and Chief Science Officer, Ontario Science Centre, Toronto
With contributions from 19 professionals immersed in the field of museum learning, The Manual of Museum Learning prescribes a number of innovative approaches backed up with hard-won experience. These “reports from the field” offer readers numerous lessons designed to assist them in transforming their institutions into fully 21st century learning museums. Building on the recognition that not all audiences learn in the same way, contributors focus on the affective and informal learning that can take place when museum planning is improved. For that reason, the second edition focuses not on individual learning strategies but institutional strategies, interpretive planning, operations and facility planning – all in the service of improving the visitor’s experience. The ways that museums can be the connectors that facilitate self-directed learning by linking people with resources is also an important focus. Woven together insightfully by editors Brad King and Barry Lord, this updated edition stands out as an exemplary tool of museum best practice.
The most recent in the series of manuals edited by Lord Cultural Resources experts and staff, The Manual of Museum Learning joins the OMA Award of Excellence in Publications-winning Manual of Museum Exhibitions, Second Edition, The Manual of Museum Planning, Third Edition, The Manual of Museum Management, Second Edition, and The Manual of Strategic Planning for Museums in offering students and practitioners a solid foundation of current practice and inspiring ideas.
About The Authors
Barry Lord, Co-Founder and Co-President of Lord Cultural Resources, is internationally known as one of the world’s leading museum planners. Educated at McMaster and Harvard Universities. Barry co-founded Lord Cultural Resources with his wife Gail Lord in 1981. Barry has been instrumental in developing museum planning having co-authored with Gail Lord, five museum planning manuals that have been published in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Georgian. In 2010 Gail and Barry collaborated to write Artists, Patrons, and the Public: Why Culture Changes. Barry’s most recent book is Art & Energy, published by The AAM Press of The American Alliance of Museums in 2014.
Brad King is a Vice President with Lord Cultural Resources in Toronto. He has led or contributed to nearly 200 museum planning projects in over 15 countries since first joining Lord in 2000, ranging from various facets of museum management consulting to exhibition planning. His earlier contributions to Lord Cultural Resources’ series of manuals include chapters in the first edition of The Manual of Museum Learning (2007) and the third edition of The Manual of Museum Planning (2012). Brad holds a PhD in History from the University of Toronto.
