The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister" after its founder, Laszlo Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series' inauguration in 1938. The series has featured contributions by seven Nobel laureates: D.H.R. Barton, D. Crowfoot Hodgkin, L. Pauling, K. Alder, O. Diels, P. Karrer, H. von Euler-Chelpin.
The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in the field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists, and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.

The Brain-Friendly Museum proposes an innovative approach to experiencing and enjoying the museum environment in new ways, based on the systematic application of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Providing practical guidance on navigating and thinking about museums in different ways, the book is designed to help develop more fulfilling visitor experiences. It explores our cognitive processes and emotions, and how they can be used to engage with and enjoy the museum environment, regardless of the visitor's background, language, or culture. The book considers core cognitive processes, including memory, attention, and perception, and how they can successfully be applied to the museum environment, for example, in creating more effective displays. Using evidence-based examples throughout, the book advocates for a wellbeing approach improving visitor experience, and one that is grounded in research from psychology and neuroscience. This book is a must-read for all museum practitioners and psychologists interested in the relationship between cultural heritage, psychology, and neuroscience. It will also be of great interest to art therapists, neuroscientists, university students, museum stakeholders, and museum lovers.

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister" after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series' inauguration in 1938. It is therefore not really surprising to find out that the list of contributing authors, who were awarded a Nobel Prize, is quite long: Kurt Alder, Derek H.R. Barton, George Wells Beadle, Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin, Otto Diels, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, Paul Karrer, Luis Federico Leloir, Linus Pauling, Vladimir Prelog, with Walter Norman Haworth and Adolf F.J. Butenandt serving as members of the editorial board. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in his field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.

The Brain-Friendly Museum proposes an innovative approach to experiencing and enjoying the museum environment in new ways, based on the systematic application of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Providing practical guidance on navigating and thinking about museums in different ways, the book is designed to help develop more fulfilling visitor experiences. It explores our cognitive processes and emotions, and how they can be used to engage with and enjoy the museum environment, regardless of the visitor's background, language, or culture. The book considers core cognitive processes, including memory, attention, and perception, and how they can successfully be applied to the museum environment, for example, in creating more effective displays. Using evidence-based examples throughout, the book advocates for a wellbeing approach improving visitor experience, and one that is grounded in research from psychology and neuroscience. This book is a must-read for all museum practitioners and psychologists interested in the relationship between cultural heritage, psychology, and neuroscience. It will also be of great interest to art therapists, neuroscientists, university students, museum stakeholders, and museum lovers.

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 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 types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. 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.

As the first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking integrate their original research from a wide variety of disciplines as well as visitor studies from institutions ranging from science centers and zoos to art and natural history museums. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences. This book is an essential reference for all museum professionals and students of museum studies, and has been used widely for higher education courses in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and has been translated into Japanese and Chinese. Originally published in 1992, the book is now available from Left Coast Press, Inc. as of November 2010.

Born to Choose is John H. Falk's compelling account of why and how we make the endless set of choices we do, every second of every day of our lives. Synthesizing research from across the biological and social sciences, Falk argues that human choice-making is an evolutionarily ancient and complex process. He suggests that all our choices are influenced by very basic and early evolving needs, and that ultimately each choice is designed to support survival in the guise of perceived well-being. This engaging book breaks new intellectual ground and enhances our understanding not just of human choice-making but human behavior overall.

The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit when it was first published in 1992, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking have updated this essential reference, incorporating advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience Revisited paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences.

As the first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking integrate their original research from a wide variety of disciplines as well as visitor studies from institutions ranging from science centers and zoos to art and natural history museums. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences. This book is an essential reference for all museum professionals and students of museum studies, and has been used widely for higher education courses in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and has been translated into Japanese and Chinese. Originally published in 1992, the book is now available from Left Coast Press, Inc. as of November 2010.

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 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 types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. 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.

The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit when it was first published in 1992, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking have updated this essential reference, incorporating advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience Revisited paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences.

Born to Choose is John H. Falk's compelling account of why and how we make the endless set of choices we do, every second of every day of our lives. Synthesizing research from across the biological and social sciences, Falk argues that human choice-making is an evolutionarily ancient and complex process. He suggests that all our choices are influenced by very basic and early evolving needs, and that ultimately each choice is designed to support survival in the guise of perceived well-being. This engaging book breaks new intellectual ground and enhances our understanding not just of human choice-making but human behavior overall.

Within the healthcare domain, big data is defined as any ``high volume, high diversity biological, clinical, environmental, and lifestyle information collected from single individuals to large cohorts, in relation to their health and wellness status, at one or several time points.'' Such data is crucial because within it lies vast amounts of invaluable information that could potentially change a patient's life, opening doors to alternate therapies, drugs, and diagnostic tools. Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Biomedical Big Data thus discusses modalities; the numerous ways in which this data is captured via sensors; and various sample rates and dimensionalities. Capturing, analyzing, storing, and visualizing such massive data has required new shifts in signal processing paradigms and new ways of combining signal processing with machine learning tools. This book covers several of these aspects in two ways: firstly, through theoretical signal processing chapters where tools aimed at big data (be it biomedical or otherwise) are described; and, secondly, through application-driven chapters focusing on existing applications of signal processing and machine learning for big biomedical data. This text aimed at the curious researcher working in the field, as well as undergraduate and graduate students eager to learn how signal processing can help with big data analysis. It is the hope of Drs. Sejdic and Falk that this book will bring together signal processing and machine learning researchers to unlock existing bottlenecks within the healthcare field, thereby improving patient quality-of-life. Provides an overview of recent state-of-the-art signal processing and machine learning algorithms for biomedical big data, including applications in the neuroimaging, cardiac, retinal, genomic, sleep, patient outcome prediction, critical care, and rehabilitation domains. Provides contributed chapters from world leaders in the fields of big data and signal processing, covering topics such as data quality, data compression, statistical and graph signal processing techniques, and deep learning and their applications within the biomedical sphere. This book's material covers how expert domain knowledge can be used to advance signal processing and machine learning for biomedical big data applications.

In Thriving in the Knowledge Age, John Falk and Beverly Sheppard argue that museums require a radically new business model to survive the transition into the knowledge age. Only by shifting towards more personalized and community-based learning experiences can museums reverse the declining attendance figures of the twenty-first century. Written to provide clear answers to fundamental questions about the purpose and goals of the museum of the future, this visionary book is a must-have for museum professionals and trustees.

Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the public use of museums, The Value of Museums: Enhancing Societal Well-Being provides a timely and compelling way for museum professionals to better understand and explain the benefits created by museum experiences. The key insight this book advances is that museum experiences successfully support a major driver of human behavior - the desire for enhanced well-being. Knowingly or not, the business of museums has always been to support and enhance the public's personal, intellectual, social and physical well-being. Over the years, museums have excelled at this task, as evidenced by the almost indelible memories museum experiences engender. People report that museum experiences make them feel better about themselves, more informed, happier, healthier and more enriched; all outcomes directly related to enhanced well-being. Historically, benefits such as enhanced well-being were seen as vague and intangible, but Falk shows that enhanced well-being, when properly conceptualized, can not only be defined and measured, but also can be monetized. However, as many in the museum world are painfully aware, what worked yesterday for museums may not work in the future as recessions and pandemics rapidly alter the landscape. Although insights about past experiences are interesting, what is needed now is a roadmap for the future. Fortunately for museums, the public's need for enhanced well-being will not be disappearing any time soon; enhanced well-being is now, and will always be, a fundamental and on-going human need. What has and will change, though, is how people choose to satisfy their well-being-related needs. The Value of Museums provides tangible suggestions for how museum professionals can build on their legacy of success at supporting the public's well-being, adapting to changing times, and remaining relevant and sustainable in the future.

Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the public use of museums, The Value of Museums: Enhancing Societal Well-Being provides a timely and compelling way for museum professionals to better understand and explain the benefits created by museum experiences. The key insight this book advances is that museum experiences successfully support a major driver of human behavior - the desire for enhanced well-being. Knowingly or not, the business of museums has always been to support and enhance the public's personal, intellectual, social and physical well-being. Over the years, museums have excelled at this task, as evidenced by the almost indelible memories museum experiences engender. People report that museum experiences make them feel better about themselves, more informed, happier, healthier and more enriched; all outcomes directly related to enhanced well-being. Historically, benefits such as enhanced well-being were seen as vague and intangible, but Falk shows that enhanced well-being, when properly conceptualized, can not only be defined and measured, but also can be monetized. However, as many in the museum world are painfully aware, what worked yesterday for museums may not work in the future as recessions and pandemics rapidly alter the landscape. Although insights about past experiences are interesting, what is needed now is a roadmap for the future. Fortunately for museums, the public's need for enhanced well-being will not be disappearing any time soon; enhanced well-being is now, and will always be, a fundamental and on-going human need. What has and will change, though, is how people choose to satisfy their well-being-related needs. The Value of Museums provides tangible suggestions for how museum professionals can build on their legacy of success at supporting the public's well-being, adapting to changing times, and remaining relevant and sustainable in the future.

This is the second edition of John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking's ground-breaking book, Learning from Museums. While the book still focuses on why, how, what, when, and with whom, people learn from their museum experiences, the authors further investigate the extension of museums beyond their walls and the changing perceptions of the roles that museums increasingly play in the 21st century with respect to the publics they serve (and those they would like to serve). This new edition offers an updated and synthesized version of the Contextual Model of Learning, as well as the latest advances in free-choice learning research, theory and practice, in order to provide readers a highly readable and informative understanding of the personal, sociocultural and physical dimensions of the museum experience. Falk and Dierking also fill in gaps in the 1st edition. Falk's research focuses increasingly on the self-related needs that museums meet, and these findings enhance the personal context chapter. Dierking's work delves deeply into the macro-sociocultural dimensions of learning, a topic not discussed in the sociocultural chapter in the first edition. Emphasizing the importance of time (and space), the second edition adds an entirely new chapter to describe the important dimension of time. They also insert findings from the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Latter chapters of the book discuss the evolving role of museums in the rapidly changing Information /Learning Society of the 21st century. New examples and suggestions highlight the ways that the new understandings of learning can help museum practitioners reinvent how museums can and should support the public's lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learning.

Most environmental learning takes place outside of the formal education system, but our understanding of how this learning actually occurs is in its infancy. By surfing the internet, watching nature documentaries, and visiting parks, forests, marine sanctuaries, and zoos, people make active choices to learn about various aspects of their environment every day. Free-Choice Learning and the Environment explores the theoretical foundations of free-choice environmental education, the practical implications for applying theory to the education of learners of all ages, and the policy implications for creating new and sustainable environmental education opportunities.

Most environmental learning takes place outside of the formal education system, but our understanding of how this learning actually occurs is in its infancy. By surfing the internet, watching nature documentaries, and visiting parks, forests, marine sanctuaries, and zoos, people make active choices to learn about various aspects of their environment every day. Free-Choice Learning and the Environment explores the theoretical foundations of free-choice environmental education, the practical implications for applying theory to the education of learners of all ages, and the policy implications for creating new and sustainable environmental education opportunities.

The science museum field has made tremendous advances in understanding museum learning, but little has been done to consolidate and synethesize these findings to encourage widespread improvements in practice. By clearly presenting the most current knowledge of museum learning, In Principle, In Practice aims to promote effective programs and exhibitions, identify promising approaches for future research, and develop strategies for implementing and sustaining connections between research and practice in the museum community.

The science museum field has made tremendous advances in understanding museum learning, but little has been done to consolidate and synethesize these findings to encourage widespread improvements in practice. By clearly presenting the most current knowledge of museum learning, In Principle, In Practice aims to promote effective programs and exhibitions, identify promising approaches for future research, and develop strategies for implementing and sustaining connections between research and practice in the museum community.

In Thriving in the Knowledge Age, John Falk and Beverly Sheppard argue that museums require a radically new business model to survive the transition into the knowledge age. Only by shifting towards more personalized and community-based learning experiences can museums reverse the declining attendance figures of the twenty-first century. Written to provide clear answers to fundamental questions about the purpose and goals of the museum of the future, this visionary book is a must-have for museum professionals and trustees.

Falk presents the first comprehensive exposition of this great Polish phenomenologist's views of literature as art, drawing on Ingarden's writing that are relevant to the ontology of the literary work of art and to reading and the experiencing of reading. Falk explains the differences between the presented world and the real world, between presentation and representation, and between the reader's cognitive functions and his intuitions of aesthetic qualities.
Originally published in 1981.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

This is the second edition of John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking's ground-breaking book, Learning from Museums. While the book still focuses on why, how, what, when, and with whom, people learn from their museum experiences, the authors further investigate the extension of museums beyond their walls and the changing perceptions of the roles that museums increasingly play in the 21st century with respect to the publics they serve (and those they would like to serve). This new edition offers an updated and synthesized version of the Contextual Model of Learning, as well as the latest advances in free-choice learning research, theory and practice, in order to provide readers a highly readable and informative understanding of the personal, sociocultural and physical dimensions of the museum experience. Falk and Dierking also fill in gaps in the 1st edition. Falk's research focuses increasingly on the self-related needs that museums meet, and these findings enhance the personal context chapter. Dierking's work delves deeply into the macro-sociocultural dimensions of learning, a topic not discussed in the sociocultural chapter in the first edition. Emphasizing the importance of time (and space), the second edition adds an entirely new chapter to describe the important dimension of time. They also insert findings from the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Latter chapters of the book discuss the evolving role of museums in the rapidly changing Information /Learning Society of the 21st century. New examples and suggestions highlight the ways that the new understandings of learning can help museum practitioners reinvent how museums can and should support the public's lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learning.