Science Bulletins: Cross-media Publishing of Current Science Stories

Steve Gano, American Museum of Natural History, USA
Ro Kinzler, American Museum of Natural History, USA
Vivian Trakinski, American Museum of Natural History, USA
http://sciencebulletins.amnh.org

Session: Publication Models

Science Bulletins is a unique cross-media publishing program of the American Museum of Natural History that brings current science to permanent exhibition halls in the Museum, informal learning centers throughout the country, and, through the Science Bulletins Web site, to everyone in the world. The three Science Bulletins – Astro, Earth, and Bio – present ongoing research and recent discoveries in astrophysics, Earth sciences, and biodiversity. Each bulletin has three types of stories: features, data visualizations, and news snapshots. The stories are updated on a weekly basis on high-definition video displays and interactive kiosks in the halls, and on the Science Bulletins' Web site. The Science Bulletins' Web site is assembled using a new publishing system developed in-house using open source software. The new publishing system replaces a third-party custom solution, and incorporates the lessons learned from that first venture. In particular, a clean separation of content and presentation provides flexibility for the interface and feature set to evolve. The flexibility has allowed the team to add new features, such as learning activities for each story, published on the same schedule as the content.