On Dec 18, 1995 16:30:08, 'Melissa Taylor <[log in to unmask]>' wrote:


>Our museum is currently evaluating the fields of information that we
>record for each object in our collection.  We are wondering if we are
>missing any fields related to the object's value.  So far, we have
>Purchase Price, Insurance Value, and Tax Receipt Value.  Are there
>other types of values that we should be recording?

It is important to remember that when recording information like
"valuation" the contents of the field(s) are meaningful only when allied to
other supporting data.  Certainly if you have a valuation (be it purchase
price, insurance value, etc.) you would want to record the date that
valuation was made, who made it, for what purposes, the currency system
used, and any misc. remarks.  If it is a purchase price, you want to know
the source(s) of the funds,  Without these contextualizing data the
information collected is more or less meaningless.  In addition, many
museums will want to keep a history of valuation data, may even want to
create tickler reports that will be run at intervals to remind staff that
an evaluation is due.

A quick glance at the fields defined in the CHIN Humanities Data
Dictionary(Revision 3, April 1993) makes the nature of this problem clear.
Under the category Appraisal Fields the CHIN dictionary reports the
following fields in which all valuations are assumed to be in Canadian
Dollars:

Inventory date

Appraised value
Appraisal date
Appraiser
Appraiser Company
Appraisal References (Bibliographic resources used)
Appraisal Remarks
Appraiser Remarks

Tax Receipt Request (y/n)
Tax Receipt Submission Date
Tax Receipt Value

Purchase Price
Price Code
Purchase Order Number
Purchase Date
Currency/Amount Paid (for foreign funds)
Source of Funds
Purchase Remarks

Insurance Value
Insurance Code (instead of entering an amount, above)
Insurance Evaluation Date
Insurance Evaluator
Insurance Company

It seem obvious from the above list that "valuation" is a process that
links a series of "actors" though an "activity" to an "object."  The data
model of simple systems will assume much of the contextual data.  For
example, "insurance value" will automatically mean "latest insurance value"
determined by our "regular appraiser."  More complex institutions will have
to be sure they can document all the "understoods and givens."

Note: the CHIN Data Dictionary is copyright by the Minister of Supply and
Services Canada 1993, its official title is "The Humanities Data Dictionary
of the Canadian Heritage Information Network."

Addendum: The most peculiar valuation data element I ever found in a museum
(actually a calculated field) was the following: Number of square inches
per dollar valuation!
--

Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont N.Y. 10538
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