We'd fleshed out some research issues before the last MW, and i thought i'd re-post them here to help frame the research forum discussion.

/jt

thanks seb, for the rather nice write-up of the steve.museum update podcast.

you've hit on one of the real problems of conducting research in the museum context -- the task of making what seems 'academic' relevant and useful. it's hard, in our project-driven culture, to step back from what we think we 'know' to see if there is any evidence for our prejudices. Lorcan Dempsey blogged about this not long ago, pleading for an 'evidence base' in library catalogue development.

we need research in order to do what we do better, but we can't have research for research's sake in a sector devoted to public service.

i've been thinking about this in the context of how we structure and report both the steve.museum research agenda and its results. obviously, there's a need to distill the research rationale into something that's easily digestible to the professional. but doing that without dumbing down is a challenge. make it seem to easy and the need for the research gets lost; make it too applied, and the product takes the place of the questions and the research environment starts to look like an answer in itself.

User issues in museums and the web research include: