Learning from Loans
Museum Practice: Issue 18: November 2001: pp57-59
by Joy McAlpine: Project Manager
The results of an evaluation of its loans to schools have been used by Reading Museum
Service to inform improvements to the loans service and development of new loan displays.
Introduction
Reading Museum Service (RMS) has supplied loan boxes to schools in Berkshire for more than
90 years. The loans service plays a central role in the museum and its strategy for access
and outreach. Teachers can now view and order boxes via the RMS website, and visitors to
the museum can view the boxes in the Box Room gallery where they are stored and prepared
(see Museum Practice, issue 5, p9).
In 1999, the RMS made a successful bid to the (then) Department for Education and
Employment for funding for a project to evaluate how effectively the loans service
supports the process of learning from objects. One of the main objectives was to inform
the development of 12 pilot loan boxes and displays in consultation with 24 schools. Data
was collected by the project manager, Joy McAlpine, through a combination of structured
interviews with teachers, observation of the use of existing loan boxes in the classroom,
and interviews with students seven to ten months after the classroom sessions.
Following the fieldwork, five teachers were invited (and paid a fee) to visit the
museum and collaborate with the RMS's collection care team on the pilot loans, taking
account of the information gathered through the interviews and observations. Of the 12
loans:
- Six consist of aluminium suitcase-style loan boxes - called contact loans -
containing a selection of objects and supporting materials for handling or display in the
classroom
- Six consist of selections of object in portable display cases - called impact loans -
also with supporting materials, for deploying in classrooms or communal areas within
schools.
Contact loans
Features of the Contact loan resulting directly from feedback from teachers include:
Focus group findings
- Fewer objects
Some existing boxes contain up to 30 objects; teachers find fewer objects easier to keep
track of and repack after use. The pilot boxes therefore contain between four and ten
items.
- Multiple objects
Teachers wanted more than one of some items - an impossibility in the case of
real and unique objects. Instead, the new boxes contain multiple photographs of some items
to support whole-class use.
- Back up information
Time and effort spent by some teachers on producing their own information to support loans
suggested that the RMS should provide stand-alone text panels with loan boxes. The pilot
boxes contain three A4-size, freestanding acrylic plastic holders for displaying
information supplied by the RMS, or produced by teachers or students.
Finding 3
- Accompanying notes
In response to requests from teachers for information that they can assimilate
quickly and is also accessible to their students, the notes supplied with the pilot loans
are in the form of colourful, professionally-designed, laminated A4 sheets for slotting
into stands or laying out on tables.
Finding 18 and Finding 29
- Stronger identity and branding
The suitcases used for existing loans were liked by teachers, but also thought to
lack colour and clear branding; 50 per cent of teachers had not associated the loan cases
with the RMS. In the pilot cases, the museum's logo is printed on a divider between the
lid and the base, and is also displayed on a plate attached to the outside of the lid.
Finding 32
Impact loans
The classroom observations showed that 50 per cent of the existing boxes were on display
for at least 50 per cent of the time they were on loan to schools, and teachers wanted
loans they could safely leave on open display in classrooms or communal areas. The pilot
designs therefore include six portable displays each consisting of several objects housed
within an acrylic plastic cube which can be attached to a robust base unit or placed on a
tabletop. Oxfordshire Museums had already pioneered the use of portable display cases (see
Museum Practice, issue 3, pp 67 - 69), and RMS had also used a different design of
portable display case for its corporate service to local businesses.
Finding 2 and Finding 58
The design of the impact loans - allowing an all-round view of the contents - and the
colours, materials and fittings used in its construction are a response to requests from
teachers that the loans should look special and precious as they would in the museum.
Other features resulting from consultation with teachers include:
- The display of several objects in each case to encourage to study the displays more
than once.
- Displays linked to themes most in demand for the National Curriculum (the Second
World War, the Victorians, and Britain since the 1930s); teachers also emphasised the
importance of loans generally as a source of primary evidence.
Finding 23
- Two lockable drawers within the plinth containing handling objects for use in
conjunction with the displays.
Finding 5 and Finding 41
- A4-size acrylic plastic holders on two sides of the plinth for displaying information
on the displays prepared by teachers.
Feedback
The impact loans were launched in June 2001 and have so far (September 2001) been used by
four schools for the second half of the summer term. Although more evaluation of the boxes
and display loans has still to be done, an enthusiastic response from the first schools to
try them, says McAlpine, tends to confirm the value of the initial research and
consultation of teachers. Museums, she says, have spent a lot of time and effort in the
recent past consulting their audiences about changes to permanent displays or the design
of websites while perhaps giving a lower priority to improvements to their loan service.
The RMS attaches great importance to loans as a teaching resource, and teachers
emphasise the value to students of seeing and handling real - rather than replica -
objects. Loans are not intended to be a substitute for museum visits, but make a major
contribution to increasing access to the RMS's collections.
Finding 16, Finding 22, Finding 24, Finding 25, Finding 26, Finding 34 and Finding 35
Impact loans design
The design and content of the portable display cases - known as impact loans - were
discussed at a meeting involving teachers and staff at Reading Museum Service (RMS),
following the fieldwork carried out by Joy McAlpine, the project manager. McAlpine,
together with her colleagues Ray Curtis and Stuart Hooper from the RMS collection care
team, then produced annotated sketches of the display cases from which local cabinet maker
and joiner Daniel Gray produced a prototype on which the final version was based.
The display cases consist of two main elements:
- A display unit comprising a frameless acrylic plastic casing (500 x 500 x 600
millimetre) secured to a rigid baseboard constructed of a square wooden frame skinned with
ply and surrounded by an oak trim.
- A hollow base unit made in two halves from low-formaldehyde grade medium density
fibreboard (MDF) with oak trim and painted finish.
The two sections of the base unit are joined vertically and locked together with
concealed clips to form a robust plinth for the display unit which is secured to it with
push-in locks; alternatively, the display unit can also be placed on a tabletop during
classroom sessions. The base unit incorporates two lockable drawers for storage of
handling objects related to the displays, and carriers on tow opposite sides into which
A4-size acrylic plastic holders containing interpretive material can be clipped.
For transportation, the display unit is housed within the volume of the plinth, the two
halves of which lock around it to form a protective casing. The objects within the display
unit are securely mounted and left in place during transit. The acrylic plastic case tops
provide a semi-sealed environment which buffers the contents against rapid changes in
external conditions. The cases can be lifted by two people and are transported to and from
the delivery van on a purpose-made trolley designed to minimise jolting and vibration.
Project Data
CLIENT
Reading Museum Service
Contact for further information:
Joy McAlpine, Project Manager
Tel: 0118 939 9898
Fax: 0118 939 9881
Email: mail@readingmuseum.org.uk
Website: www.readingmuseum.org.uk
COSTS
Approximate cost of contact loans: £250 (excluding costs of foam lining material)
Indicative cost of impact loans: £1,670 (excluding costs of staff time and part-time
researcher/writer for interpretive material)
Approximate cost breakdown per display case:
Base unit including acrylic plastic casing: £1,000
Display mounts: £540
Silk-screening on base units: £50
SUPPLIERS
Aluminium loan boxes: Custom Cases Ltd, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire
Tel: (01992) 764545
Fax: (01992) 713508
Display case construction: Daniel Gray, Cabinet Makers and Joiner, Reading
Tel: (0118) 9820252
Fax: (0118) 9820258
Display mounts: Dauphin Display (Oxford) Ltd., Oxford
Tel: (01865) 343542
Fax: (01865) 343307.
For further information please explore the following
findings:
Finding 3: Where and how are the museum objects displayed?
Finding 18: Should the new notes be directed to the
teacher, to the students or both?
Finding 29: If we could do one thing to improve the
presentation of our loan boxes what would that be?
Finding 32: Do you make the connection between the loan
service and the Museum of Reading?
Finding 2: How much time are loans on display as a
percentage?
Finding 58: If there was a display, where was it?
Finding 23:Why would teachers order from a loan service?
Finding 5: How many students will see the loans on display
during a half term
Finding 41: Did the teacher and the students touch the
objects?
Finding 22: What do the students learn from the loans that
they could not have learned in any other way?
Finding 24: How important is learning from objects?
Finding 25: Is learning from objects more, equal or less
important than learning from books?
Finding 26: How important is having access to a loan service?
Finding 34: If you had to make a choice between free loans in
the classroom or free visits in the museum which would you prefer and why?
Finding 35: Do the loans encourage you to visit the museum?
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