Personal Interpretation: Connecting Your Audience to Heritage Resources

by Tim Merriman, Tim Merriman

If you only had time to read one book before becoming a front-line guide or interpreter, Personal Connecting Your Audience with Heritage Resources is the ideal resource. Written in clear, concise language with many examples, it employs the most current ideas in the interpretive profession. It also shares some of the rich traditions from interpretation's past masters, drawing on Freeman Tilden's principles and Enos Mills' thoughtful ideas on nature guiding. It will connect you with the more in-depth resources developed by authors such as Sam Ham, Bill Lewis, Douglas Knudson, Ted Cable, Larry beck, and Joseph Cornell. This resource shares the approaches tested and proven by the National Park Service and many other organizations along with the research concepts that back up their approaches.

Authors Lisa Brochu and Tim Merriman collectively have more than 60 years experience in the interpretive profession as interpreters, consultants, planners and trainers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Writing has always been a strong interest for me but time and the maturity to write well has come later in life. Lisa Brochu and I work together, write as a team and were married in 2008. Since 2002, we have written four non-fiction books in the area of heritage interpretation and one work of fiction, The Leopard Tree.

In the 1970's I published several children's plays in Scott Foresman readers. I wrote my first novel then and queried diverse publishers, building my file of rejection letters. Somewhere around 24 or so I quit sending the queries. I really plunged deeper into my work then. I was an environmental educator at Southern Illinois University's Touch of Nature. Then I was a park ranger/interpreter at Giant City State Park in Makanda, Illinois. Next I was Director of a nature center in Pueblo, Colorado for a dozen years and then Science Director for Bat Conservation International and later served as Research Manager for Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky.I served as the Executive Director of National of Association for Interpretation in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 1995 to 2012.

Lisa and I now consult as Heartfelt Associates with parks, zoos, nature centers, aquariums, historic sites and communities on heritage interpretation. We have traveled 23 countries since 1995 in this work.

We personally donate to several E. African charities assisting communities with HIV, malaria and hunger. We also advocate for organizations protecting wildlife, especially elephants and mountain gorillas.

Having grown up in Vandalia, Illinois, I went to college nearby in Carbondale, Illinois, at Southern Illinois University earning a B.S. in zoology, teaching certificate, M.A. in botany and Ph.D. in speech/communitcations.

Reviews

[Tiffany]

As a new naturalist, I found this book very helpful as part of the curriculum for NAI CIG certification. It was a good "home base" or jumping off point to let me know what other books could be helpful to me by summarizing other authors.
A worthwhile read, which contains much useful information.

[Kristie]

I think this will be a good reference book in the future, but having to read this around the same time as Tilden and Beck & Cable made this all a bit redundant.

[Melissa]

If you are just starting out in museum interpretation, I highly recommend reading this book first. It provides a light overview of the basics of museum interpretation. It is also a good refresher for those of us who have been in the field for a while. Easy to read with some enjoyable anecdotes of the authors' personal experience with interpretation.

[Rachel]

A pretty basic book but it offers a good outline of interpretation, touching on all the major scholars and theories behind it while giving practical advice on how to do interpretation as well.

[Lila]

read while taking CIG course! a good complement to the course lessons. definitely want to order my own copy to reference back if i am ever writing my own programs.

[Empanadani]

This was a really nice and concise book about the art of interpretation. I would highly recommend this to anybody who is in the field of interpretation or does public speaking in general. It's important to know how to "interpret" the valuable natural resources in our environment for the benefit of other people.
It goes through the history of interpretation, how to develop an interpretive program, provides resources for further reading, and is just very well-written.

[Melissa]

Good overview of environmental interpretation.

[Kayla]

A good jumping off point. Unfortunately seems to have little of its own to contribute. However if you are just starting to develop your knowledge of interpretive skills then go for it.