Robert,

I am a librarian in an art museum.  Our library is chiefly print material,
however we do house the museum's slide collection.  Your questions about
cataloging images/objects might better be answered by slide
librarians/curators. Their listserve address is:  [log in to unmask]
The listserve for art librarians may also of help: [log in to unmask]

Here at the Saint Louis Art Museum both slides and objects are cataloged
using an automated system.  There are two different systems now, but I
believe we are interested in a more integrated one for the future.  Our
slide curator does work closely with the Registrar Department to make sure
that the information concerning our museum's objects is the same in both
systems.  Sometimes this involves the curator, sometimes not.  Neither
system uses a MARC based record (Library talk for Machine Readable
Cataloging record.)  Both the slide library and Information
Services/Registrar use the "Art and Architecture Thesaurus" (AAT) and the
"Union List of Artist Names" (ULAN) for vocabulary and authority control.

As a personal comment, speaking as a cataloging librarian,  we librarians
have been interested in standards for description and access and authority
control for a much longer period of time that museum professionals.
Organization is one of our strong points :)  It is interesting to note that
when our registrars records were first automated that they turned to two
products of the library profession, the AAT and ULAN, to help control the chaos.

Marianne Cavanaugh
Richardson Memorial Library
The Saint Louis Art Museum

At 08:02 AM 11/15/96 EST, you wrote:
>Hello,
>      I am a library/info sci student who is currently at work on a paper
>concerning the cataloging of images and artifacts. As this overlaps a bit
>with the type of goals and work that museums practice, I have several
>questions I'd like to post for anyone who has the time to answer.
>     1) Any librarians working in museums, have you ever consulted with
>     curators during the accession/cataloging of items? Have you ever heard
>     of any information professionals being used by museums in this regard?
>     2) To anyone, are your accession records automated, and if so, what
>     kind of system do you use? Is records sharing ever an issue with museums?
>     3) Anyone who has used Chennell(sp?) as a source for describing acquisitio
>ns, please let me know a few likes/dislikes about it.
>     There is a sparse literature comparing/contrasting library work and museum
>accession practices, but I haven't seen anything recent on the topic. I greatly
>appreciate feedback from anyone, and also welcome any comments, issues or
>perspectives that I haven't anticipated.
>                       Thank You, Robert Brazell
>
>