Background Report for a New Park Publication

Harpers Ferry Center staff shows new park brochures to visitors from the National Parks of China.

Parks must complete a Background Report that includes their park name and details on the following critical elements:

1. Audience: Who visits your park? General, seniors, school groups, backpackers, boaters, canoeists, rock climbers, history buffs, families, etc.? Do you have a high proportion of non-English-speaking visitors?

2. Purpose: How will this brochure be used? Where will it be distributed? What else is handed out? What sales literature is available? Send any such materials that will be helpful to us in producing the brochure.

3. Maps: What kind and how many are needed? Why? How does staff use maps in helping visitors? What important towns or road junctions outside the park need to be shown? Does private property within the authorized boundary need to be shown? Is there wilderness area within your park? Is there any important problem that you think a map could solve? What kind of information can be linked closely to the map? What kinds of base map materials can the park supply?

4. Visitor Information: What major kinds of practical park use information must be conveyed? What accessibility facilities does your park have? If you have a park newspaper or other printed material, please send it. Can the park staff send us a list of day-to-day practical information?

5. Themes: What is the overall interpretive theme or thrust of your park? What are the secondary themes? How extensively are these covered in films, wayside exhibits, exhibits, or personal interpretation in the park? How much repetition of this information will the brochure have to carry? Has Harpers Ferry Center done other recent interpretive projects for your park? Do you have a recent Interpretive Plan? Can you provide other printed studies or reports relevant to the park’s interpretation?

6. Special Subjects and Subthemes: What topics, if any, would make particularly pertinent features in the brochure? Would any of these, especially if seasonal, temporary, highly detailed (like a bird list), or changeable, be better treated in a site bulletin?

7. Illustrations: What photos, drawings, and diagrams are available in the park files or from other sources? Has any professional photographer or magazine photographed the park in recent years?

8. Other Notes and Special Considerations: When was your park created? Date authorized, date established? Did your park ever have another name or designation?

9. Contact: Who will be our main contact person in the park (name, title, phone number)?

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Publications »

IN DEPTH:

Brochures »

Making a Brochure Step by Step »