Dear Juetian,
There are a number of questions here!
1. What are the pros/ cons of using electronic ledger over handwritten
ledgers? Here are just a few reasons:
* Ease of storage and access.
* Ability to search the records on the basis of predefined criteria.
* Ability to standardise the information held and how it is held.
* Ability to auto generate accession numbers (depending on the system).
2. Use of EXCEL to set up your accession register. Without in any way
wanting to contradict Cristin, I would say that EXCEL would only suffice
for the more basic accession register - unless you are an advanced EXCEL
user!
* EXCEL does provide quite powerful search facilities, but unless you
are skilled at writing the formulae, I would suggest you go for one of
the many Collections Management databases out there and make sure it
offers the facility to search on selected criteria, without you having
to write the formulae!
* I would hope that any off the shelf CM database worth its salt should
auto-generate unique accession numbers, which is one of your
requirements: a manual system will rely on the user to keep control
which is error prone.
* As Cristin says, you can password protect files in EXCEL, but if once
you progress to a decent CM database, you should have access to a more
sophisticated access control system, so you can more precisely control
who has access to which records, who can update, who can view only, etc.
* Do you wish to attach images to your records? If so, then computer
based system are ideal for this as you can attach digital images with
relative ease.
* At the most basic level a computer system offer you the facility to
back up records with comparative ease, compared with having to photocopy
(?) manual records!
I appreciate that the observations above are generalisations and that
advanced EXCEL users can work miracles, but as you ask general
questions, I hope these thoughts are of some use!
Regards.
Jerry
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Cristin Waterbury
Sent: 13 September 2012 15:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Accession Register/ Master Ledger
I have successfully used Excel at two museums to create the master
accession register. It has worked well, but with a couple of caveats.
First, every time we make even the tiniest change or addition, we
always, always print a hard copy. I think it's really important to have
the paper copy even though we have very good electronic backup
procedures.
Also, you may wish to password protect the Excel file and limit which
people can edit it. One thing about the old fashioned handwritten
ledgers is that they are very difficult to tamper with. Hate to say it,
but us "insiders" are often the ones responsible when something from the
collection turns up missing, and museum professionals have been known to
falsify collections records on rare occasion when they've taken things
from the collection illegally. Making the collections records (including
the register) hard to falsify is a protection for both us as
professionals and for the organizations we work for. Even if you don't
password protect the file, make sure only certain personnel have access
to it.
With those things in mind, it's a far more efficient way to maintain
records, in my opinion.
As for your question about accession numbering policies, are you
referring to the structure of the number itself (i.e. we use a three
part accession number in the format year.lot.item), or do you mean how
are accession numbers physically marked on different types of objects,
or something else entirely? Either way, I would suggest checking out a
copy of Museum Registration Methods 5th Edition, published by and
available through AAM. It's "the" go-to source for this type of
information and well worth the investment.
Finally, you might also want to post your questions to the RC-AAM
listserv for more opinions and information from the field. See
http://www.rcaam.org/Listserv.
Best,
Cristin
Cristin J. Waterbury
Curator
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium
A Property of the Dubuque County Historical Society
350 East 3rd Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001
Ph: 563-557-9545, ext 204
Fax: 563-583-1241
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.rivermuseum.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Juetian Luo
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 12:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Accession Register/ Master Ledger
Hello,
Are there any museums out there which have successfully employed the use
of an electronic master ledger/ accession register? By that, I mean
using computer (MS Excel) as a master ledger or some software to
generate unique accession number when assigning numbers to your
collection?
What are the pros/ cons of using electronic ledger over handwritten
ledgers?
http://www.studiolo.org/MusComp/LEDGER.htm
Also, anyone with Accessioning Numbering Policy to share?
We are in the midst of reviewing our system to make sure it's watertight
to prevent recurrence of errors such as 2 items having the same
accession no.
Thanks in advance!
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