I am very interested in the results of the discussions of your task
force. This is the kind of issue that we have begun to focus on in my
work with the Art Information Task force, A joint project of the Getty
Art History Information Project, and the College Art Association,
sponsored by the NEH.  I hope you will make your results public.
 
Do you know of the work of the AASLH Common Agenda Project. They published
recommendations for documentation of history collection as an AASLH
report, authored by Jim Blackaby. ["Manaaging Historical Data: The Report
of the Common Agenda Task Force" included in History News, Oct. 1989.]
 
Please keep us posted.
 
J. Trant
Consultant
Arts Information Management
48 Wolverleigh Blvd,                Phone: (416) 462 9404
Toronto, ON M4J 1R7                 Fax:   (416) 462 0960
Canada                              Email: [log in to unmask]
 
 
On Fri, 28 Jan 1994, Wayne E. Wakefield wrote:
 
> I am on a task force at the National Museum of American History trying to
> define what the minimum amount of documentation is needed to make our objects
> useful to the telling of our story. What do you in the field consider the
> minimum? What is the "practical ideal." Does information storage technology
> have an impact on the data collected? How far beyond administrative and
> descriptive data should we go in documenting a historic object? What is the
> best means of making this collected documentation accessible to the museum's
> staff, scholars and the public? What forms might this documentation take?
> Photographs? digital images? Letters? Journal articles? Catalog worksheets?
> Computer files?
>
> Any answers?
>
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