The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships: Historical Antecedents, Contemporary Manifestations, and Future Directions (review)

This book criticizes the marketing direction that many libraries and museums took in the last decades of the twentieth century, analyzes alternative marketing models, and suggests a particular type of library-museum hybrid that the authors envision as a direction in which these institutions, particularly libraries, should proceed. Dilevko and Gottlieb lament the programming choices that many libraries and museums made beginning in the mid-1970s.

Reductions in funding and a shift toward outcomes-based measures were partially responsible for the move of many libraries and museums toward more popular offerings—an attempt to draw patrons and boost entrance and circulation statistics. Dubbed "edutainment," these nominally educative programs and displays appealed to patrons' entertainment desires. The authors argue that catering to the common tastes of the broad market both "dumbs down" traditionally educational institutions and blurs the boundaries between them and pure entertainment venues such as theme parks. Their position is that edutainment is "the antithesis of the type of serious study, knowledge acquisition, reflection, contemplation, and critical inquiry with which libraries—and museums—are traditionally associated" (9). They reiterate this purpose of museums and libraries throughout the book, emphasizing the value of educational goals and how these goals are undermined by edutainment programs.

The authors also found problematic museums' movement toward commercialization in their gift shops and cafés, where offerings frequently tie in with blockbuster exhibits. Dilevko and Gottlieb maintain that these commercialization efforts distract visitors from the actual collections and exhibits. Among practices that detract from a focus on museum collections, they fault flashy, technologically based displays and refer to these as the "postobject" museum, engaged in offering services, entertainment, and spectacle rather than collections. Libraries are similarly seeking popular appeal by adding coffee shops, Internet connections, and popular courses such as yoga. The authors assert that this makes libraries more akin to bookstores and community centers than educational facilities.

After thoroughly examining edutainment trends in chapters 1 and 2 the authors turn their attention to examples of library-museum collaborations from historical times to the current day. Chapter 3 examines the mission of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), particularly the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Library and Museum Collaborations Program. The authors describe eighty library-museum partnerships that received IMLS funding from 1998 to 2003. In the next chapters they continue to flesh out the concept of library-museum connections by tying their ideas concerning library-museum hybrids to historical models. They detail museum and library history from the 1700s, attributing the split between books and objects to convenience and convention. The authors are enchanted with "cabinets of curiosities," which they state historically began in sixteenth-century Europe as private collections of interesting items, emerging on the American continent in the eighteenth century. They trace the history of this concept through several examples and several centuries, pointing out that books were often part of such collections.

Chapter 5 introduces the authors' concept of future libraries with collections formed around cabinets of curiosities either owned by the libraries or borrowed from local museums or local collectors. They speak in optimistically glowing terms about the possibilities inherent in this scheme, stating that the combination of text and objects offers "authentic experiences" to patrons and creates an intellectual context that is exciting and conducive to learning. The authors believe patrons will feel a "sense of wonder," particularly if the objects chosen create a connection between object and patron and if the community actively participates in determining collections and displays that "relate in a meaningful way to their intended audience" and provide an "atmosphere of intellectual discovery" (183–90). Their dream is that, "juxtaposed and interspersed, objects and text-based materials would thus illuminate and deepen understanding of the myriad of topics and subjects pertaining to that area" (193).

The book does a very good job of criticizing edutainment trends...