Having opened a brand new Library/Museum facility in Boston, Massachusetts,
USA just two years ago that contains several high-tech exhibits, we've
learned a lot about the do's and don'ts of exhibit design quite quickly. I
offer a few of my thoughts and lessons that I have learned through my
experience as the one responsible for maintaining all of our A/V and digital
installations. Since my experience is on the tech side, that's what I'll
stick to babbling about.

Note that these items may sound a little bit like harping on details, and
slightly (unintentionally) negative. Rest assured that this been a
wonderful, fun experience, but if I had to do everything over again, these
are steps I would be sure to take:


- Make your exhibits future proof. Joe mentions this on his excellent site -
buy off the shelf hardware that can be easily upgraded/replaced/repaired. If
you can't do that, make sure you have extra spare inventory on hand. For
example, if your plasma screen display is enclosed in a aluminum, laser cut,
custom-enclosure that can fit that display, and only that display, make sure
you have a backup that will fit in place, because the new model of the same
screen wont. :)

- Along those lines, _always_ have spares on-hand and ready to go. Computers
and other A/V equipment with moving parts (trackballs) or high heat outputs
(LCD projectors) can and will degrade/go bad over time. Being able to swap a
ready to go spare in place while you arrange for the repair of the broken
item makes life much easier.

- Document, Document, Document. Everything you do, archive all of your
software (including source code if available), maintain contact lists for
_all_ of your contractors, exhibit designers, etc. In our Library we had a
contractor sub-contract an entire gallery out, who in turn subcontracted the
different exhibit pieces out, along with four different design firms
creating pieces of the installation in collaboration with our in-house IT
department. I've spent hour after hour just trying to track down what vendor
purchased different pieces of hardware so we can find a copy of a receipt so
we can prove that our equipment is within a warrantee window.

Another thing I wish we did - after all of the exhibit installation is
completed, make sure any differences between the final approved
specs/drawings/software configurations and what actually was installed is
noted. We spent about $10K US to re-wire and fix exhibit control programming
3 months after opening - that number could have been greatly reduced if we
had accurate as-built drawings.

- Often, those individuals implementing the installation are completely
different than those individuals maintaining/operating the exhibit. Make
sure those who are maintaining have all of the documentation and training
required to maintain those exhibits. That said, there are _always_
bugs/kinks to be worked out that the maintainers will need to go back to the
designers - make sure those lines of communication are alive.

At our Library - I am the contact for any tech problems with our exhibits.
My job is to diagnose the issue and fix if possible. In general, this
position is best held by a tech guru with excellent problem solving skills.
Half of this job is being able to trace out where a problem is occurring,
eliminate simple possibilities, and knowing who to call for backup :)

If I can't fix an issue or am unavailable (on vacation, etc), the issue gets
escalated to our IT department if it's during their business hours, or if
it's outside of those (after 5PM, or weekends), it will go to our A/V
Maintenance contractors, with whom we have a service level agreement for
just such occasions.


That's about it. Hope I didn't babble on too much, but happy to add more
detail or examples if you'd like.

Jason Yovanoff
Systems, Exhibits & A/V Specialist
The Mary Baker Eddy Library
for the Betterment of Humanity
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http://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/