Table of Contents Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience John H. Falk 302 pp. / 6.00 x 9.00 / May, 2009 Hardback (978-1-59874-162-9) Paperback (978-1-59874-163-6) Hardback ($79.00) Paperback ($29.95)    Related Interest   - Museum Studies & Practice Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and "Falk (Oregon State), a researcher in the field of museum functions, chooses an important time to present a model to enhance the effectiveness of all kinds of museums. The world economic scene is rather grim and traditional sources of support unreliable. He offers a work in progress, a theoretical model (the Museum Visitor Experience Model), to help visualize the relationships between museum and visitor, emphasizing the types of experience, not visitors. He believes these experiences should 'extend, confirm, and reinforce the visitor's existing beliefs,' rather than communicate new information. These arguments present a major challenge for museums in the 21st century. Recommended." - CHOICE " This book should be read by anyone serious about visitor experiences in museums. Falk reconceptualises the field from a wholistic perspective using the ‘lens’ of visitor identity and motivation. The model he proposes will shape and inform the nature, design and understanding of visitor experiences in free-choice learning environments. " - –Roy Ballantyne, University of Queensland, and editor of Visitor Studies Journal " John Falk's most exciting work reframes frustrating old questions in new ways that bring immediate clarity. In this important book, Falk shifts the old issue of visitor segmentation away from stable traits to ephemeral dispositions. His new formulation shows us visitors who actually seem to belong to the same species as ourselves, and whose differences relate to understandable differences in the ways that they perceive and use exhibitions. " - –Jay Rounds, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Museum Studies, University of Missouri St. Louis, and former editor of the Exhibitionist Journal " John Falk’s determined focus on the visitor’s experience continues to transform our understanding of the relationship between museums and their audiences. Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience demonstrates that Falk remains the leading voice in the field of museum learning. For the first time he moves beyond theory and proposes a model that museums can use to explore how to serve their visitors in more meaningful ways. " - Nannette V. Maciejunes, Columbus Museum of Art leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs. He identifies five key motivations that underlie why people visit museums and then defines the internal processes by which these motivations drive the museum visitor experience. Through an understanding of how museums shape and reflect their personal and group identity, Falk is able to show not only how museums can increase their attendance and revenue, but also their meaningfulness to their constituents.