Open Forum

Hello,
My small community history museum, Mountain Lake Park Association Museum, is being redesigned. We are planning to produce
an audio tour for adults and one for children. We are thinking of having ten 45-second stops on the adult tour and fewer for the children's
tour, to dig more deeply into the stories of objects. May I have your insights for creating an effective, user-friendly audio tour? We are
going to use a podcasting kit that our local library is lending us; will be trained to use it tomorrow. Thank you. 

------------------------------
Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Director
Bethel Center - Mountain Lake Park Historical Association (MLPHA)
Mountain Lake Park MD
------------------------------

Hi Elizabeth,

I invite you to check out some tips on how to write a script for an audio tour in our blog:
Audio tour for Adults
Audio tour for Children

Hope these suggestions are useful to you!

Evelyn

------------------------------
Evelyn Crende
Sales Manager
Nubart
https://www.nubart.eu


------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2023 03:34 PM
From: Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Subject: Audio Tours for adults and children

Hello,
My small community history museum, Mountain Lake Park Association Museum, is being redesigned. We are planning to produce
an audio tour for adults and one for children. We are thinking of having ten 45-second stops on the adult tour and fewer for the children's
tour, to dig more deeply into the stories of objects. May I have your insights for creating an effective, user-friendly audio tour? We are
going to use a podcasting kit that our local library is lending us; will be trained to use it tomorrow. Thank you. 

------------------------------
Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Director
Bethel Center - Mountain Lake Park Historical Association (MLPHA)
Mountain Lake Park MD
------------------------------

Hi Elizabeth,

We create augmented reality (AR) tours for museums, cities and public spaces, but audio is a big part of that.  Happy to share what we have learned and best practices.  There are lots of ways to go about creating an audio tour.  The best first step is to think about your visitor journey: how do you want them to discover the audio tour? And what kind of experience do you want them to have?  

For Example: 
How do you want them to discover the tour?
QR Codes attached to the display are the easiest way for them to discover the audio and can be dynamically connected to individual web-based audio via Sound Cloud etc.  The pros are: ease of use and access.  No special app needed.  Best for providing discrete info.  Con: this approach does not necessarily encourage a story/narrative type of experience by itself.  

What kind of experience do you want them to have?
If you want to encourage a story type of experience where each audio potentially builds on each other (i.e. narrative journey) providing additional hardcopy materials or an app that supports that type of experience may be a better way to go. 

Hope that helps and provides a bit of food for thought.  Feel free to reach out with questions or more info.

Julia

------------------------------
Julia Beabout
Creative Director, Novaby AR Studio
Novaby
julia.beabout@novaby.com
(206) 595-7213
www.novaby.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2023 03:34 PM
From: Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Subject: Audio Tours for adults and children

Hello,
My small community history museum, Mountain Lake Park Association Museum, is being redesigned. We are planning to produce
an audio tour for adults and one for children. We are thinking of having ten 45-second stops on the adult tour and fewer for the children's
tour, to dig more deeply into the stories of objects. May I have your insights for creating an effective, user-friendly audio tour? We are
going to use a podcasting kit that our local library is lending us; will be trained to use it tomorrow. Thank you. 

------------------------------
Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Director
Bethel Center - Mountain Lake Park Historical Association (MLPHA)
Mountain Lake Park MD
------------------------------

Hi Elizabeth,

We have been writing scripts in various languages for museums, culture and heritage for more than six years now. These are some tips you may want to consider-

1. Keep the language very simple- no fancy words
2. Keep the sentences short- its easier to understand when you hear shorter sentences. Reading can afford longer ones
3. Talk as though you are walking along with the visitor taking him around
4. Water down the content so a layman may understand and appreciate. Those interested in further details can be referred to the museum team

You've got the duration right from the visitor's point of view.

Should you be looking for tech to enable your visitors to use their own smart phones as audio guides we would be very happy to offer our SaaS Could based products ( iOS and Android mobile applications and PWA incl audio guides) at a nominal price. Do let me know of your interest at shalini.bansal@museums22.com

------------------------------
Shalini Bansal
Co-Founder
Museums22 by Desiwalks Tours Private Limited
Mumbai
shalini.bansal@museums22.com
(+91) 9818375642
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2023 03:34 PM
From: Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Subject: Audio Tours for adults and children

Hello,
My small community history museum, Mountain Lake Park Association Museum, is being redesigned. We are planning to produce
an audio tour for adults and one for children. We are thinking of having ten 45-second stops on the adult tour and fewer for the children's
tour, to dig more deeply into the stories of objects. May I have your insights for creating an effective, user-friendly audio tour? We are
going to use a podcasting kit that our local library is lending us; will be trained to use it tomorrow. Thank you. 

------------------------------
Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Director
Bethel Center - Mountain Lake Park Historical Association (MLPHA)
Mountain Lake Park MD
------------------------------

Hi Elizabeth, 

We have actually moved away from scripted audio guides in favor of a podcast approach.

"Experts" and enthusiasts have been interviewed and their candid responses have been crafted into 1-2 minute clips with a clear story arc that balances a direct transfer of information with close looking. We did this to invite our listeners to be part of the conversation and avoid a transfer of knowledge in favor of something more collaborative that invites multiple, more diverse voices. In essence, we hope listeners will feel more comfortable listening to a combination of enthusiastic responses in addition to straight facts and feel empowered to "join" the conversation. We're basing this on some more recent research in the field of interpretation and studies about podcasts as a primary conveyer of information post-pandemic. Happy to share more about our guide and that approach if it's of interest. Good luck! 

------------------------------
Brittany Strupp PhD
Manager of Interpretation
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo NY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2023 03:34 PM
From: Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Subject: Audio Tours for adults and children

Hello,
My small community history museum, Mountain Lake Park Association Museum, is being redesigned. We are planning to produce
an audio tour for adults and one for children. We are thinking of having ten 45-second stops on the adult tour and fewer for the children's
tour, to dig more deeply into the stories of objects. May I have your insights for creating an effective, user-friendly audio tour? We are
going to use a podcasting kit that our local library is lending us; will be trained to use it tomorrow. Thank you. 

------------------------------
Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Director
Bethel Center - Mountain Lake Park Historical Association (MLPHA)
Mountain Lake Park MD
------------------------------

I would love to learn more about this approach. It sounds timely and intriguing.

------------------------------
Tree Callanan
Director of Communications
Bristol RI
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-15-2023 11:07 AM
From: Brittany Strupp
Subject: Audio Tours for adults and children

Hi Elizabeth, 

We have actually moved away from scripted audio guides in favor of a podcast approach.

"Experts" and enthusiasts have been interviewed and their candid responses have been crafted into 1-2 minute clips with a clear story arc that balances a direct transfer of information with close looking. We did this to invite our listeners to be part of the conversation and avoid a transfer of knowledge in favor of something more collaborative that invites multiple, more diverse voices. In essence, we hope listeners will feel more comfortable listening to a combination of enthusiastic responses in addition to straight facts and feel empowered to "join" the conversation. We're basing this on some more recent research in the field of interpretation and studies about podcasts as a primary conveyer of information post-pandemic. Happy to share more about our guide and that approach if it's of interest. Good luck! 

------------------------------
Brittany Strupp PhD
Manager of Interpretation
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo NY

Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2023 03:34 PM
From: Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Subject: Audio Tours for adults and children

Hello,
My small community history museum, Mountain Lake Park Association Museum, is being redesigned. We are planning to produce
an audio tour for adults and one for children. We are thinking of having ten 45-second stops on the adult tour and fewer for the children's
tour, to dig more deeply into the stories of objects. May I have your insights for creating an effective, user-friendly audio tour? We are
going to use a podcasting kit that our local library is lending us; will be trained to use it tomorrow. Thank you. 

------------------------------
Elizabeth Rees Gilbert
Director
Bethel Center - Mountain Lake Park Historical Association (MLPHA)
Mountain Lake Park MD
------------------------------