Imagine sitting in a comfortable setting with fifty-five kind, experienced, generous, and almost parental nurturers who reveal all their museum secrets to you so that your personal dream of creating a small science or children's museum can be realized. Consider this book the equivalent of conversations with knowledgeable elders who tell stories containing all the juicy expertise you need, available just when you need it. Keep it by your bedside but keep a pen and paper handy.
Elaine Heumann Gurian, senior museum consultant, The Museum Group Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all model, the strength and potential impact of this book are in the breadth of different stories of starting and developing informal science centers and children's museums as well as the wealth of advice from leaders in the science center field. It is noteworthy that all of the accounts stated the importance of understanding and connecting with the local communities—not only as visitors, but also as co-developers in the creation of dynamic, responsive, informal learning institutions. A big thanks to Cynthia Yao for having the tenacity to start a vital museum and then to create this book of many voices and tales—a book that hopefully encourages readers to consider the potential impact and future directions of these remarkable environments.
Sally Duensing, King's College London and former science and museum liason, Exploratorium Cynthia Yao's Handbook for Small Science Centers is a splendid manual for developing a science center of any size or content. The contributors not only tell their success stories, but what went wrong, why, and how they fixed it. No two sets of goals, challenges, opportunities, and solutions are alike, which is why the fifty concise stories in this book are invaluable. By mixing and matching the experiences chronicled here, anyone involved in creating a new institution will find just the advice, warnings, and inspirations they need for their unique situation.
Alan J. Friedman, director, New York Hall of Science; president of the Visitor Studies Association This wonderful book, mirroring the spirit of the emerging science center movement itself, is chock full of interesting things to learn: modest, practical, accessible, and so much in the real world. In the hands of the visionary with a gleam in her eye on the way to creating a new community-based science program or the seasoned museum worker struggling with today’s operating problem, Handbook for Small Science Centers should become a well-thumbed landmark on all managers’ desks and a must for every board member’s reading list.
Michael Spock, former director, Boston Children's Museum The Handbook for Small Science Centers has become sort of a bible to me; as various challenges and issues present themselves, I find myself flipping through the pages, finding relelvant articles and soaking in the experience and wisdom of colleagues who have done this before. No matter what form of involvement you may have with a science center there's something in this book for everyone.
May/June 2008
Muse
The Handbook for Small Science Canters is a thoughtfully written and extremely helpful new resource for the field that can benefit science centers, children’s museums, and other institutions. The well-organized and excellently written essays cover a wide range of issues that can emerge in organizing and managing a science center.
Bonnie Pitman, Dallas Museum of Art The 12 sections cover nearly all aspects of starting and running a center, not only practical aspects such as governance, audience, exhibits, and so on, but also reflective aspects, such as a history of science centers and speculations on their future....a tremendous resource.
Phelan R. Fretz, Executive Director of the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain