4.4. Conclusions

• Describe animal exhibits in a comparable way;
• offer relevant information to zoo professionals;
• provide a platform for exchange of expertise;
• reach an international audience;
• publish people's opinions on animal exhibits in discussions and contests; and
• run a website on zoo design economically.

Therefore, it seems appropriate to have more or less subjective descriptions but define the topics to be covered. The criteria used for standardized descriptions have proven to be useful.

The disadvantage of these relatively informal descriptions is that they vary with standards: What is common practice in one place and needs not be mentioned in an exhibit description might be emphasized by another institution in their exhibit description as a new achievement. This bias will be obvious to insiders, but may be misleading for other people. Comments in a discussion forum will hopefully correct the image for those interested in depth.

Zoo professionals from Australia, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, South Africa, Switzerland and the United States were contacted and have visited ZooLex. Additional visitation to ZooLex came from countries where I had no contacts, such as Canada, Colombia, Finland, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Singapore, and Trinidad. This shows that ZooLex is already reaching the international zoo community.

The total number of different individuals visiting ZooLex was more than 500 from September 1 to December 31, 1999. I invited an estimated 40 of these. Total visitation then is about 12 times higher than the number of persons invited. This suggests a great effect of word of mouth within the zoo world. It also suggests that ZooLex offers information relevant to the professional audience and can provide a platform for exchange of expertise.

Results of the survey and the interviews confirm the high interest in exhibit presentations and a discussion forum.

A very specialized site (http://www.worldzoo.org) was able to draw 23,000 visitors with 72,000 hits in January 2000. This website is operated by the International Species Information System (ISIS), an international non-profit membership organization which serves 550 zoological institutional members, from 54 countries, worldwide. ISIS supports conservation and preservation of species, by helping member facilities manage their living collections. It was launched in June 1995 and is geared to a professional audience. In 1999 ten employees and volunteers were working for the organization. Information is available on 250,000 living specimens of 6,000 species, along with an additional 750,000 of their ancestors, most of which were bred in member facilities.

Visitor readership often relates to the number of hits counted. The number of sites gives an estimate of individual persons visiting. ZooLex pages in comparison had a visitation of about 6000 hits and 160 sites per month without being linked to any search engine. The numbers can be expected to be considerably higher when websites with affinities and search engines help to find ZooLex. A high frequency of visitation is the main prerequisite for running a website economically. The survey results also indicate some readiness from professionals to pay a fee for subscription. 

More specifically, the evaluation of the sample website has shown that:

• the design chosen is mostly appropriate for the target audiences 

and what kind of adaptations should be made;
• professionals are able to find useful information easily;
• in general, the audience has no difficulty with the text, 

but translations would be helpful for non-English native speakers.
• The pictures are the main attraction, but

loading times may be a problem.

Feedback from interviews and comments from the survey indicate the importance of having very soon a range of exhibits to explore. Considering the problems with obtaining the material for a complete exhibit description, it seems useful to introduce a new section: "At A Glimpse" will feature exhibits in a more superficial format than the Exhibit Gallery. This section may serve as a preliminary station for exhibit presentations awaiting completion.

The section "Opening Soon" cannot be updated regularly in this format. It is just too time consuming. Exhibits recently opened will be presented in "At A Glimpse" too. They can have a special feature indicating their novelty.

Overall, the survey gives some indications for the further development of ZooLex. Interpretation was done very carefully, as the total number of respondents is quite small and answers were vague. This is, because questions about the future use of ZooLex are hard to answer with having only a sample of ZooLex so far.

Another survey of ZooLex at a later stage of development will be useful. It should be printed and distributed by mail to reach a wider audience. Zoo directors are important disseminators, even when they do not use ZooLex themselves. Questions for the frequency of use should include the option "Maybe never", in order not to be confounded with the answer "seldom". Questions for agreement should include the option "I don't know", in order not to be confounded with the answer "I partly agree". For reaching a representative audience, support of the survey by the World Zoo Organization is desirable.