Balancing accessibility and familiarity: offering digital media loans at the museum front desk

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of the staff–visitor encounter in relation to the challenges presented in supporting museum visitors with varying competencies in adopting new technologies. In particular, the paper examines the organisation and operation of a museum's front desk, and addresses the highly contingent, interactional accomplishment of loans and dissemination, more specifically the conversation and the interaction between the front desk assistant and the visitors concerning a potential iPod loan. Based on 18 hours of video recordings, the paper focuses on the offering sequence and shows that participants orient to at least two aspects when making/receiving offers of an iPod loan: (1) the acceptance or rejection of the offer and (2) questions of familiarity; e.g. whether or not the iPod can be treated as a known item. These aspects are inherently related, and participants may choose to align with the terms of familiarity while disaligning with the offer, and vice versa. The study shows that museums are faced with a great challenge, as well as a great opportunity, in supporting visitors when adopting new technologies.

Keywords:

• multimedia guide
• front desk
• visitor–staff interaction
• technology
• museum

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation [Grant No. 09–0632745] for the DREAM project Digital Innovation: Organisational challenges (dream.dk).

Notes on contributor

Ditte Laursen is a senior researcher at the State Media Archive in Denmark. She earned her Ph.D. in Media Studies from University of Southern Denmark, specialising in young people's mobile phone communication. Her major research interests are social interaction in and around digital media across formal, semi-formal and informal learning sites. As a conversation analyst and ethnographer, her primary data are audio and video recordings of naturally occurring interaction and conduct, combined with participant observation and semi-structured interviews.

Notes

1. I use the following transcription conventions: (.) indicates timed pauses in seconds, square brackets ([ ]) indicate overlapping talk, (( )) marks non-verbal behaviour,:: indicates that the syllable is lengthened, = means no discernible pause between two turns. Transcription symbols and conventions are adopted and simplified from the notation system developed by Gail Jefferson (Atkinson and Heritage, 1984b: ix–xvi). I use ( to indicate lines of special interest to the analysis. The capital letter indicates which assistant appears in the extract.