GUIDELINES FOR THE CURATION OF GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS

Where partial or complete replicas are used in a display this information
should be stated clearly.
3.4. SELECTING AND OBTAINING PHOTOGRAPHS
The other interpretative media with which visitors are familiar (TV, books,
magazines etc.) use photographic images of very high quality. Museum visitors
will make a subconscious comparison with your exhibition; second-rate photographs
will communicate your objectives less effectively. Good quality photographic
originals, usually in the form of 35 mm or 5" X 4" colour transparencies,
are obtainable from specialist photograph agencies and a few other official
institutions- you should provide them with as full details as possible of your
requirements, preferably by letter, so that their researchers can choose the closest
image to the one you want. A reproduction fee is payable to Agencies; however,
with non-profit making exhibitions it may be possible to negotiate a small
discount. Good black and white photographs remain an effective medium for
certain applications.
The processing technique (and the price) should be matched to the length of
time the exhibition is to run. Only travelling, 'permanent' or outdoor exhibitions
justify the use of permanent colour printing, which is expensive. Remember,
however, that prolonged exposure to strong light, especially sunlight, will
eventually cause fading and discolouration of all colour prints.
3.5. COPY WRITING
Despite years of research and many words of advice, the written material - title,
headings, script, labels, captions etc. - remains the least agreed and most difficult
part of the job.
Research shows (Falk 1982; see also Alt 1980; Shettel 1968) that visitors spend
less than 30 seconds per display 'unit' and that they seldom spend longer than
about 15 minutes in an exhibition. However, a note of caution should be sounded
about applying such statistics too literally: museums have a duty to inform the
occasional more serious visitor as well as entertaining the casual majority. This
evidently relates to the characteristics of the identified target audience, but a
possible resolution lies in the provision of more than one level of text or of books
aimed at the more serious visitor.
3.6. THE CURATOR AND THE DESIGNER
If you are lucky enough to have in-house designers, or can afford to pay for the
services of commercial exhibition designers, make the most of them. The other
major interpretative media, TV and publishing, recognise the value of design as a
way of improving the effectiveness of what they do. The development of a
co-operative relationship between curators and designers, and the recognition of
the importance of design in museums, is a valid goal for all curators.