Bob,

My background is cataloguing manuscripts, personal papers and archives, and
the difficulty I have with learning museum cataloguing is that an archivist
catalogues a "collection" rather than individual pieces (although sometimes a
collection may be only one piece...).

I am learning.  Since I had to learn library cataloguing which isn't really
quite the same as archival cataloguing I'm getting used to switching modes.
But because archivists have borrowed alot from library cataloguing, I've learned
the art of using the most descriptive terms available from either world.  I
would suggest that just as librarians and archivists move to different thesauri
when the Library of Congress Subject headings aren't adequate, you may find
you need to move to a different thesaurus when faced with the same problem.
What immediately comes to mind is MeSH, or Medical Subject Headings.  I know
many medical history archivists and librarians who use this thesaurus almost
exclusively, and thus it is an establish/known thesaurus in the field of medical
history.  If you're going to be doing alot of turn of the century doctor's
office stuff, then you may be using it alot.  And then establish it as the
secondary thesaurus when Chenal doesn't have what you need.  This way you don't have
the problem of trying to maintain your own subject authority files.  You just
refer to Chenal and MeSH instead of making up your own.

Hope this helps!

Holly Wilhelm
Virginia.

P.S. Would the curator who asked me about museum systems and library
management systems please contact me?  I've lost your email, and I'd like to pass on
some info before I forget what it was for!


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