PROCESS NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM EXHIBIT LABEL SCRIPT

PROCESS

• Write for accessibility and readability. No more than 7^th grade reading level, unless a particular audience is specified. Our visitors range from very young to very old, from subject experts to those who know little or nothing about aviation, spaceflight, or science. Their learning styles vary. Many do not speak English fluently. They trek through crowded galleries alone or in groups, with children or other family members or friends. They are often trying to cover lot of territory in a limited amount of time.

• Write short labels. NASM visitors spend an average of 10 minutes in each gallery. Make every word count. Consider Strunk and White’s rule #17 in The Elements of Style, “Omit needless words.” Trim away nonessential information.

• Use active verbs, simple words, and active learning techniques. Choose strong, precise verbs and avoid passive language. Substitute short words for needlessly long ones (about for approximately). Questions can help to engage, focus, and make connections with the visitor. They can be narrative, inspirational, or directed-looking (e.g.: How is a bicycle like an airplane? How much would you pay for a brief suborbital ride into space on a spacecraft? Can you see the seams on the fan blade?)

• Write for non-specialists. Most visitors are unfamiliar with the subject. Avoid jargon and unnecessary acronyms. Explain difficult concepts in familiar terms; if technical terms are needed, define them.

• Write for reading aloud. Use short and simple sentences; avoid compound sentences and complex structure. Imagine yourself talking to visitors—have a conversation! Convey information in interesting, even fun, ways. Engaging writing will make visitors want to read more.

• Break up text. Use bullets to present information in lists of shorter chunks. Move details from main labels into photo or artifact labels, but be prepared to “give up” on some content if it is not vital to the big idea.

• Keep paragraphs well organized. Visitors may scan rather than read every word. One idea per label: Start with a topic sentence and end on a strong note. Two short paragraphs are easier to read than one long block of text.

• Focus on the object at hand. Encourage visitors to examine an object more closely. Point out interesting features they might overlook. Tell them things that are not obvious from observation alone.

• Write so each label can stand on its own. Visitors won’t necessarily read labels in the preferred order, and few will read them all. Each label must make sense if read alone, but it also has to fit within the larger matrix of labels that relate the story being told.

• Write effective titles. Titles and subtitles can be read at a glance and from a distance. They can serve as guideposts, identify objects or topics, summarize important points, capture attention, and add drama, flair, and fun. Interesting or informative titles can help get main exhibit messages across and entice visitors into reading label text.

• Refer to dictionaries and style guides. See the Museum’s Editorial Style Guidelines for NASM Exhibits, which lists preferred references and focuses on points of style specific to our needs that are not covered in or that supersede the references. The Exhibits writer-editor establishes the Museum’s editorial style for exhibits and maintains and updates the Editorial Style Guidelines.

Organizing the Script

Unlike books and magazine articles, which are organized linearly from beginning to end, an exhibition must allow for arbitrary reading. Information must be presented in “chunks” (labels) that can be read randomly and “layered” (organized in a hierarchy), so visitors can navigate through it, pick and choose what they want to read, and follow the main themes without having to read everything.

Begin from a content document that has the general struc­ture of an annotated outline. How the label script is organized may stray from your outline depending on the amount and kind of information and objects being pre­sented. Yet the script levels should correspond to its own hierarchy of units and subunits. The structure should be consistent, easy to follow, and not overly complex.

Every exhibition must have a title and a main or introductory label, which introduces the exhibi­tion and presents the main theme. The content is sub­divided into units and sometimes subunits, each focusing on a particular subject or theme. Units and subunits should have labels with titles and introductory or summary text. Expansion labels are labels that accompany artifacts, photographs, illustrations and interactive elements. These fall within units and subunits. Small exhibits may have few units and expansion labels but no subunits. Large exhibits may have many units and subunits.

Suggested Hierarchy for Exhibitions (word counts approximate)

1. Gallery Title and Introduction—25-50 words; States the main theme and sets the tone for the exhibition; with description of the exhibit big idea; may include image.

2. Unit Title and Summary—50-75 words; Introduces/Summarizes the unit (there are often six to eight units per gallery); encompasses the topic for the examples/stories/objects within it. Visitors should be able to follow the exhibition story line by reading these labels. The title helps guide readers through the content and can act as a level of information in itself by conveying key points. A title can also serve to “hook” a visitor into reading the rest of the label.

3. Subunit Header and Story—40-100 words, variable depending on type of content; Introduces subunit topic. E.g., idea topic, personal (‘people’) story, iconic object story (with technical specs), group object label, image label. Visitors should be able to follow the exhibition story line by reading these labels.

4. Expansion Label— Length variable, depending on type of content (see below); Delves into more narrowly-focused content for that subunit, or exemplifies subunit idea. E.g., object label, image caption, active learning label.

Types of Expansion Labels (word counts approximate)

Active Learning Label—25-50 words; The purpose of these labels is to achieve a more active learning environment. It may illuminate the main themes, expand upon topics of interest (deduced from front-end evaluation), promote directed looking, promote discussion within a visitor group through questioning strategies, help visitor make connections. The answers to posed questions should either be apparent from the exhibit element to which it refers, be provided in the label, or provoke thought such that it does not have a correct answer.

Image Caption—10-30 words; first reflects the image, either by a phrase or in sentence form; then adds detail or highlights an idea from a Unit, Subunit, or Object label. Be mindful that visitors will often read a caption before reading the associated text label. Include directionals to identify people.

Object Labels—Length varies (from a few words identifying a small artifact or a photograph to a few paragraphs on a major artifact) but each needs a title, generally the object name. Provide information about the artifacts, or groupings of objects on display.

Major Artifact/Iconic Object Label—75-100 words; for large artifact, aircraft, spacecraft, or other major aviation or space history artifact that is key to the storyline. These objects are the unique features of our Museum. Labels should not just give dates, facts, and specifications. They should begin by answering these visitor questions: “what am I looking at?” and “why does it matter?” May include offset technical specifications.

Technical specifications are technical data for a major artifact, typically an airplane, spacecraft, rocket, or engine. The information included should be fairly consistent among artifacts of a particular class.

Group Object Label— 30-50 words; serves as an overarching summary or topic label relating to a group of objects, answers visitor’s question, “why am I looking at this?”; usually in a case.

Expanded Object Label—30 words; for artifact that warrants more than object ID; one or two sentences giving context of object to the exhibit’s big idea, e.g., “Balloon Valve. This large wooden valve is from Thaddeus Lowes’ City of New York. It was located at the top of the balloon and used to release hydrogen to change the balloon’s altitude.” (from Ballooning in Milestones of Flight)

Object ID—10-15 words; minimal identification of an object; includes object name and short phrase of descriptive data, e.g., “Visitor badge, worn to Johnson Space Center as an astronaut applicant, 1977” (from Sally Ride Case in Milestones of Flight).

People Story—40-100 words, variable; This relates to the IPOP theory of visitor preferences, and serves as content for visitors who are attracted to exhibits that make human/emotional connections, tell a story or experience in human terms/examples, and encourage social interactions. Generally, this would be a specific individual who is known for an accomplishment that is relevant to the Big Idea, but could also be a "character" that is created (and could be recurring) to tell a story in that character’s voice

Recognition label—Acknowledges the contributions of donors and other contributors to an exhibition. NASM’s Advancement Office provides the appropriate wording and reviews the final text.

SI-Link Label—~20 words; Also called reference label; makes connections to a related artifact or object in another gallery in the Museum or at Udvar-Hazy Center, or within another Smithsonian unit. See Editorial Style Guidelines for standardized text format.

Other Labels—Free-standing text other than Unit or Subunit labels may include quotation labels and direction/instruction labels (e.g., for interactives).

Formatting the Label Script

Page Structure

We use a two-column format, with boxed cells, using tables in Microsoft Word. The Exhibits writer-editor can provide label script templates and guidance on how to use them, and will fix any formatting problems or format the script as part of the editing process. In general, the information should include the following:

Left column: label ID number; notes or identifying information about the artifact or photograph that goes with the label, such as the accession number or negative number; any other comments to the designer; low-resolution (100 dpi or so) thumbnail images of the object. Do not embed high-resolution images in the script. Those should be given to the exhibit designer.

Right column: label text only, including credit lines. Use one label to a cell.

Page Header: Gallery number (###), Exhibit name abbreviation (XX), and the exhibit working title.

Page Footer: page number and date of the script version.

Typographical Tips

Use track changes—Add comments/questions in balloons. When new versions are created, accept changes that have been reviewed.

Spacing—Single space between sentences.

Indents—Do not indent paragraphs.

Justification—Right-hand margins should be “ragged” (left justified).

Line ends—Let lines of text wrap. Don’t insert hard returns at the end of each line.

Hyphens—Turn auto-hyphenation off.

En and Em dashes—No space before or after. Use en dash (–) for ranges, to connect dates or things related to each other by distance. Use em dash (—) for a break in thought or emphasis within a sentence, or parenthetic statement within sentence.

Label Numbering

Every label has a unique ID code. A label ID begins with a number (indicating the unit or subunit within the hierarchy) and is followed by L and a two-letter abbreviation to designate the types of exhibit element it is associated with, as follows:

AR Artifact or other accessioned asset e.g., artwork, model (when an artifact)

IL Illustration or drawing that is created for the exhibiton

IM Photograph or digital image

AV Video or audiovisual non-interactive element

MI Mechanical interactive

CI Computer interactive

TE Tactile element

MO Model prop (not accessioned) that is not meant to be touched

The script label numbering may need to be updated following graphic design. The exhibit writer-editor can do the final numbering. Consider the following example for the structure.

PF:310-3L-IM

PF: Gallery abbreviation for Pioneers of Flight. (This may be omitted when the file includes the Gallery abbreviation in the header.)

310 Unit or subunit number. (In this case, it is a subunit.)

-3L Label number, identifying the label as the third in that subunit. Labels within each unit are numbered consecutively, beginning with 1L, which is usually the main label for a unit or subunit.

-IM Object symbol indicating that an image (e.g., photo) accompanies the label. (IM-AR would indicate that the label goes with both an image and an artifact.)

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