Time is running out to see the traveling exhibit “In the Dark” at the Boone County Public Library.
The exhibit, produced by the Cincinnati Museum Center allows visitors to explore areas with little or no light in an interactive setting.
The exhibit, which has been on display at the Main Library Branch a t786 Burlington Pike in Burlington, since June 1, will be taken down September 5.
The library has provided thee following information sheet about the exhibit:
Boone County Public Library will reveal what thrives beneath the soil, under the sea, in the shadows of night and within other dark environments in the traveling exhibition, In the Dark.
This interactive touring exhibit, produced by the Cincinnati Museum Center, allows visitors to enter some of the world’s areas with little or no light. Visitors will learn how animals, plants and people have adapted to dark environments as they are surrounded by the sights, sounds, smells and sensations of ecosystems at night, below the ground, inside caverns and deep in the sea.
In the Dark features three immersive zones, enabling visitors to see and experience some of these dark and largely unseen worlds, including the ways people have reacted to darkness throughout history. Each diorama uses mechanical displays, life-size animal models and informational panels to surround visitors with the sights, sounds, smells and sensations of several dark ecosystems.
“This exhibition gives visitors a glimpse into worlds that they will never see with their own eyes,” said Library Director Carrie Herrmann. “The ecosystems and animals that exist in the absence of light are truly incredible, and their adaptations are the basis of modern technology that allows humans to function in darkness.”
The Darkness of Night
Visitors encounter animals that dwell in two different environments as darkness falls in The Darkness of Night component of the exhibition: a forest in the Great Smoky Mountains, amidst a habitat in the Sonoran Desert. Visitors walk through the mountainous forest and witness how bobcats, barred owls, spotted skunks, flying squirrels and salamanders forage for meals. They also see how bats feed on night-blooming cacti in the Sonoran Desert.
Darkness within the Soil
Next the exhibition reveals what lurks below the soil as visitors learn about the animals that thrive just beneath the Earth’s surface. Here, the relationships among the world’s complex underground ecosystems as well as the plants, animals and humans living above ground are emphasized. Visitors will get a look at what dwells below the soil in a typical backyard with a life-size diorama featuring a cross-section of earth that reveals moles, cicadas, bumblebees, worms, millipedes, slugs and other animals that call the soil “home.”
Darkness Deep within Caves
As visitors examine open and closed cave systems, they learn the natural processes that form each type of cave and the unique organisms found inside. The dioramas include a walk-through recreation of a limestone solution cave and a closed ecosystem found in Romania’s Movile cave. Interactive elements explore animal adaptations and cavern environments, such as the cave cricket’s fine hair-like structures, called mechanoreceptors, which collect information about its dark environment. “Be a Bat” is a computer “cave maze” where visitors rely on sounds to find their way out of a simulated cave like their small, winged mammal counterparts.
“In the Dark is extremely interactive, and families will find lots of fun and educational activities,” Herrmann said. “I imagine visitors will really enjoy the interactives, like the pit viper game, bat echolocation, and my personal favorite, flashers of the night – which is the firefly matching test.”
Boone County Public Library