[NHCOLL-L:940] RE: Up-to-Date Accuracy in Public Exhibit Captions

[Johnson, Kurt]

>From time to time each of us is asked to assist in the preparation of public
exhibits.  Sometimes we may be somewhat "out of the loop" re: some of the
the most current subject matter and there is a danger that our contributions
to exhibit captions may not be up-to-date.  An example below brought up a
rather simple solution which I thought I might share.  This example is just
as applicable to scientific figures outside my field of entomology but the
example illustrates the problem and the solution very well.  It's a simple
way to check and see if there is current popular literature on any
entomological [or other scientific] figure AND also obtain that information
for caption use.  As you may or may not know, 1999-2000 was the centenary of
the famous novelist/former Harvard entomologist, Vladimir Nabokov.  Two
books, Nabokov's Blues (by me and S. Coates, hardback by Zoland Books,
paperback 2001 by McGraw-Hill) and Nabokov's Butterflies (edited by B. Boyd
and R. M. Pyle, hardback by Beacon Press, not yet in paperback) were "out
there", YET people have called my attention to two major biodiversity
exhibits (one at the AMNH, my former institution, and one elsewhere) where
information regarding Nabokov AND his named species now on the U.S. (or
other worldwide) Endangered Species list(s), were far out of date and thus
far from as informative as they might have been to the public.  In the first
case I was then contacted and I suggested a simple formula which may be
worth sharing.  When approached for caption information, check to see if
there is anything current on an entomological [or other scientific] figure
by using the SEARCH option at any of the major COMMERCIAL bookseller
websites (www.amazon.com; www.bn.com; www.borders.com).  IF you see a
current book there, THEY WILL OFTEN HAVE DIRECT LINKS OR INDIRECT LINKS to
(1) the websites of the publishers (which often have excerpts) or (2)
various arms-length commentaries or reviews.  You can do a quick overview,
ESP. at the publisher website (which often has book excerpts), to get
quickly updated on the latest about this entomological [or other] figure.
BEST of all, usually the publisher site has EXCERPTS where someone has
already culled the most important updated information about that scientific
personage.  These can be downloaded and cherry-picked for your captioning
purposes.  Doing this (1) simple check of the commercial bookseller websites
and (2) culling excerpts you can be sure that (a) you're up to date and
you've seen (b) you used the best cherry-picked information.  By doing this,
writers of these currently running captions about Nabokov would have been
updated to the CURRENT information about both him and species of his that
are on endangered or theatened lists worldwide and NOT given the public
information that was 30-50 years old.  The excerpts available on the web,
and locatable through the bookseller websites, really do the trick here.  I
write this note because often we wouldn't think of the commercial bookseller
webs as first lines for information, but in this case they serve that
purpose very well.

Dr. Kurt Johnson

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