Meredith, sorry for not weighing in sooner, but I've been out of town
without email access. We've been Re:Discovery users for about 10 years and
are big fans. Their technical support staff have always been incredibly
helpful and able to explain things in easy-to-understand language. One time
we had been working on a problem since 4:15 in the afternoon, and two of
them stuck with me until we had everything resolved. By that time it was
5:30, well after their 5:00 closing.
One of the reasons we decided to buy the Re:Discovery software was the
technical support staff. We contacted ten users of the software packages we
were considering, and Re:Discovery was the only system that rated "10"
across the board concerning technical support.
I'll admit, at first the program is a little intimidating, and I thought I'd
never get the hang of it, but within a few weeks I felt like a pro. Stick
with it, and don't hesitate to contact the technical support folks. They're
wonderful!
Martha Battle Jackson, Curator of Technology
Division of North Carolina State Historic Sites
Mailing Address: 4620 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4620
Street Address: 430 North Salisbury Street, Suite 1115, Raleigh, NC 27604
919/733-3877; ext. 236; FAX: 919/733-9515
[log in to unmask]
E-mail correspondence to and from this sender may be subject to the
North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
The views expressed by the sender may not reflect those of my agency.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Meredith L. Dunham
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 2:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Re:Discovery Software Solutions
Ok, For those interested in the Re:Discovery software and who've been
following my problem:
Thank you very much to whoever forwarded my email onto the Re:Discovery
staff. Someone from Re:Discovery called me and said he'd heard about my
problem (which sort of freaked me out) and was able to work with me over the
phone. (We too also pay a hefty sum for the technical support). He's
currently doing some research and is going to get back to me.
First, as I expected, I didn't fully understand the registration process for
collections items. I was trying to do a couple of things that I didn't need
to/shouldn't have been doing, such as creating an accession record for each
specific object instead of one accession record for a group of items. Same
for the "loans in" issue. Its why the system kept deleting my object number
from the accession number when I would create an accession record.
Second, our institution operates three historic houses. In order to better
maintain and keep track of our collections for each site we have added the
initials of each house into the catalog/accession number. The number
consists of the site initials first, the year of accession, the lot number,
and the item number (for example, ATH003-1-1). Our version of Re:Discovery
uses the standard accession numbering system (1999.001). As such, the
system doesn't like the way I've been filling in numbers and tries to make
our numbering system conform to its protocols. This is why I've been having
problems connecting accession records to catalog records and catalog records
to loan records.
Now, that I understand what was going wrong, I like the program much better
and would recommend it. The support staff are very friendly and helpful as
well, something I didn't anticipate having worked with support staff from
other companies. However, if you buy the standard software, be prepared:
the field help boxes are empty (for user customization) and the training
modules don't always cover what you have questions about.
Thanks again to everybody for your help.
Meredith Dunham
Curatorial Assistant
Virginia Beach Historic Houses
3131 Virginia Beach Blvd.
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
Phone: 757-431-4000
Fax: 757-431-3733
Email: [log in to unmask]
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message
to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help"
(without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
