Museums are a venue in which knowledge construction and its communication are made visible to the public. Exhibits allows for a glimpse into social attitudes toward the objects, peoples, events, and places on display, as well as how these understandings change over time
Museum research is a fascinating area which includes many aspects. There are major qualitative research methods used to study museums and some of these include:
These methods can be adapted to the study of exhibits, galleries, programs, and museums as knowledge-generating institutions from case studies conducted by museum practitioners, anthropologists, historians, and other museum studies scholars.
The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, chapter 18, "Museum Studies" explores some of these major approaches to research design in the field of museum studies. Also, check out the great eBooks the library offers below.