Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum

We evaluated the use of mobile tags within a museum setting. This included investigating the technology, writing a protocol, conducting tests with museum visitors, and writing and presenting our findings to our supervisor and his colleagues.

I enjoyed working in the Space Viz lab - which is a fun, creative working lab environment with many technologies and interfaces to play with and explore. I loved working at Adler as well, as I got to see several planetarium shows, and learn about astronomy from the absolutely brilliant astronomers who stopped by the lab.

I am definitely more interested now in studying the use of technology in museum settings. I read a lot of interesting research on the subject during the week I was there.

I got to work on a fun, cutting-edge research project, but it was so enjoyable it definitely didn't feel like work.

Our project was to evaluate the use of Microsoft's mobile tag technology for the Adler planetarium, and we successfully planned and conducted a user test in only one week. I had a blast and learned a lot about this new cutting-edge technology, and our supervisor even forwarded our report to the team at Microsoft Research! Overall, it was a great experience and I would encourage all SI students to participate in ASB!

The primary intent of the project was to inventory the modern collection in the Webster Institute for History at Adler Planetarium. The goal of the inventory was to make sure that everything was accounted for, that all the cataloging information was accurate and that the collection was in order.

The librarian at Adler was extremely helpful in helping me make connections with other libraries in Chicago, having me meet personally with a few of her colleagues, and having me attend a conference.

The networking aspect as well as exposure to several different kinds of special library collections were very positive factors, reinforcing my interest to look into such places professionally. The experience has expanded the areas of librarianship I am interested in. I had not much considered a special library collection as a suitable place to work, nor was I aware of the vast diversity of such collections at places that normally one would not expect a library.

The supervisor was one of the best parts of the whole experience. She was very knowledgable and connected in the field. Additionally, her personality, sense of humor, and genuine interest made working with her a delight, even if it was only for a week. I feel like I have made a personal connection that I can rely on in the future, if I ever find myself in Chicago.

Two other SI students and I examined the planetarium's plans to incorporate 2-dimensional barcodes that can be read by mobile phone into their exhibits. We interviewed museum visitors to learn whether they understood the barcodes and developed a series of best practices based on what we found, and made an instructional poster for the planetarium to use. I loved the opportunity to interact with real people and learn how they think about new technology. This is something I'd love to do for a career.

I think my experience furthered my idea that I'd most like a position where I get to debug upcoming technology and see if it really fulfills people's needs.

I felt that the planetarium, especially the Space Visualization Lab where I worked, was a really exciting place to work, and my supervisor was a great resource to have.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to step back from the schoolwork that characterizes SI and engage my classmates in a real work setting.

Even though a week seems so short, the truth is you really can make a difference to an organization in that time frame, and come up with a great portfolio builder to boot.