University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 25, March 27



          Museum studies celebrates 25th year with conference
     
     The Museum Studies Program will celebrate its 25th
anniversary with a one-day conference on "Museums, Education
and the New Technology: Computers, the Internet and
Multimedia Applications for the 21st Century."
     Scheduled all day on Saturday, April 12, the conference
will be held in the Trabant University Center.
     "The application of modern technologies for museums and
historical organizations is extraordinarily important in
today's rapidly changing nonprofit world," Bryant F. Tolles
Jr., museum studies, said. "This year's 25th-anniversary
museum studies conference will direct attention to the
Internet, computers and the multimedia through a keynote
address, seven presentations/demonstrations on selected
topics and respondent remarks.
     "The rich, provocative and extremely timely content of
this program will serve as an introduction to a new
experimental graduate course on museums and modern
technology, which the Museum Studies Program will premiere
next fall semester," he said.
     Keynote speaker will be Katherine Jones-Garmil,
assistant director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology at Harvard University and program director of the
Museum Computer Network.
     Other morning speakers include Margaret Dennis from the
history of industrialization section of the UD-Hagley
Program, who will speak on "Inventing the Quartz Watch: A
Case Study in Using the Web to Enhance Museum Education and
Exhibit Design."
     Marca Woodhams, librarian and project manager of the
Horticultural Services Division of the Smithsonian
Institution, will speak on "The Archives of American Gardens
Project: A Case Study," and Julie Ann Schmidt, director of
science education for the Delaware Statewide System
Initiative at UD, will discuss "Computer-Assisted Visual
Analysis of Space in Early Modern Art: A Program for the
Museum-Going Public."
     Afternoon presentations will begin with "This Just In:
Communication Technology and the Making of the Museum" by
Cara Sutherland, curator of exhibits at The Newseum in
Arlington.
     "New Media and New Audiences: Adding Value to the
Collections" will be discussed by Sean Thomas, Watertown
Productions Inc., Washington, D.C.; Lorraine Karafel, Cooper
Hewitt/Parson College Program, New York City; and Russell
Lewis, assistant director for research and curatorial
affairs at the Chicago Historical Society.
     "CHIP (Flakes and Other Foibles of Multimedia
Production): The Detroit Institute of Arts' Computer
Hypermedia Interactive Project" will be discussed by Tara
Robinson, coordinator of exhibitions and assistant to the
director, and Matthew Sikora, hypermedia coordinator, both
from the Detroit Institute of Arts.
     The last presentation will be "The Team Approach to
Creating and Evaluating Interactive Media: The Changing Role
of the Formative Evaluator," to be presented by Ilona E.
Holland, senior research associate, and Barbara N. Flagg,
director, Multimedia Research, Bellport, N.Y.
     The day will conclude with a commentary from Jones-
Garmil and an open discussion time.
     UD participants include Tolles and Mary P. Richards,
arts and science. Cost is $25 for students and $50 for all
others. Registration deadline is Tuesday, April 1.
     For more information, call the Museum Studies Program
at 831-1251 or send e-mail to Bryant.Tolles@mvs.udel.edu.
                                                -Beth Thomas