Museums are traditionally considered public service settings with educational functions and practical learning resources for students. Early childhood teachers' intention to implement class visits to museums is still very low. This paper synthesizes the theory of planned behavior model (TPB) and core determinants of the technology acceptance model…

To truly fulfill their missions and make positive strides toward the conservation of our ocean, aquariums need to reach diverse audiences and reflect their local communities. Reaching audiences not adequately represented at our facilities takes work and time. It requires building relationships and trust. We need to understand which audiences are…

This research brief describes recent methodological initiatives with the Public Libraries Survey. It describes how starting with the 2022 data, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) updated geographic identifiers to better align Census Bureau geography types with the library's legal service area, with the goal of enabling data users to…

Inquiry can be an effective educational strategy for building critical thinking and student agency, but it is also a catalyst for scientific research. This study built upon a foundation of inquiry as 25 adolescents participated in a nine-week guided inquiry curriculum focused on smartphones and digital responsibility. As participants developed…

The last few decades have seen a growing trend toward the analysis of creativity and flow experiences in pedagogy, but we have only a limited knowledge of how cultural institutions can contribute to flow experiences in learning processes. Our study argues that the effectiveness of learning might be enhanced by the experiential accumulation of…

Virtual museums are the answer a digital society, a new cultural, social, and economic system and a tool for educational innovation and digital learning. This article aims to collate all relevant evidence in virtual cultural museums with a teaching approach and detect what is published using the following question "What is published about…

In the wake of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet museum curators began to establish a museal depiction of the war. This article analyzes these early beginnings of Soviet war commemoration and the curtailing of its surprising heterogeneity in late Stalinism. Historical research has largely ignored the impact of Soviet…

This article chronicles the founding of the Chicago Collections Consortium (CCC) and its growth in its first decade. The authors, two of the consortium's original founders, acknowledge the contributions of the CCC's member institutions and leadership. They also speculate on the reasons for the consortium's success and what the future might hold…

In December 2020, President Lincoln's Cottage, a museum and historic site in Washington, DC, opened "Reflections on Grief and Child Loss," an exhibit that aims to build understanding of Abraham and Mary Lincoln as bereaved parents and weaves their story together with those of modern grieving families. This exhibit was developed by the…

The current challenge of maintaining accessible, effective museum education amid an unprecedented global health crisis has proven that the necessity of public education and museum relevancy is more critical than ever. Rachel Zollinger's former employer, Explora Science Center & Children's Museum (Explora), demonstrates daily how a commitment…

In 2008, China's museums began to offer free admission, which led to an explosive growth in the number of visitors. As a result, more researchers are examining how to determine the learning experience of museum visitors, and improving it gradually will be the next direction for the development of Chinese museums. The Contextual Model of Learning…

This article, prepared in the form of a conversation among the authors, discusses the role of a museum's repatriation of human remains or sacred objects to Indigenous communities in their efforts around Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI). Presenting case studies from their museums or from their own research in Germany and the…

Local implementation of science reform efforts in part relies on science teacher leaders (STLs) to improve science instruction in classrooms and beyond. The lack of science-specific professional learning resources drives STLs to act as boundary spanners to locate resources outside their local context to fill that gap. Museums and other informal…

The transformation of natural history and science museums from receptacles (temples) to facilitators (forums) of knowledge fosters discourse around issues relating to science and society, known as social scientific issues (SSI). To assist guests with enhanced object-based learning, extended reality (XR) technologies are thought to leverage the…

Concerns have recently been expressed about the continuing availability of human bones from India, obtained originally for educational purposes but lacking the requisite informed consent that would be expected today. More generally, a broader claim is being made, namely, that the practice of using any unconsented bones in educational settings is…