One good link I found was
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8189/databases.html It lists most of
the Collections Management software systems currently available in the
United States (as well as some other countries,) and provides links to the
company websites of their producers. It also provides links to information
about standards and so forth. (Now I wish I had saved the larger website.
If anyone recognizes the page and has the homesite address, please forward
it to me.)
I have had less satisfying experiences with homegrown databases, especially
if the creator/main user leaves the institution. On the other hand, until
recently I have been using a three column msWord table to hold the accession
number, a brief description, and a location code. It served our purpose
(shortcut to the card catalog system), allowed very limited searches, and
the format is so simple that transferring to a more sophisticated system was
almost a no-brainer. Whatever system you end up using, create a data entry
manual naming each field, and describing what information does or does not
get entered in it. The manual will help train new staff and volunteers, and
will be of great help if you need to transfer to a new software system.
If you decide to develop your own system and use outside help, either paid
or volunteer, write a contract, and specify that this is a work-for-hire
with all applicable copyrights residing with your institution. At one of my
previous positions, the man who developed our collections database
volunteered his time with the verbal agreement that he would retain all
rights to the program code he wrote. The system worked great and everyone
was happy. Then the program developer got a well paying job that kept him
busy 60 hours a week, and our system became a very low priority. Time went
by, technology surged ahead, and our data needs changed. When it came time
to either update or switch to a new system, our once-volunteer programmer
would not allow us access to the system's code, making it impossible to make
changes, and difficult to transfer the data. This was his right -he owned
the copyrights.
Good Luck,
Margaret Lyman, Collections Manager
Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
-----Original Message-----
From: Ricardo Lopez [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 5:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Assesing information technology for a museum\cultural center
Hello everybody out there,
I'm new to this mailing list (couple of days) and I don't know if your
"museums community" has another more specific list for information
technology in collections management, if so forgive me and please redirect
me.
I have the task of assessing a project in the information technology
required to support the activities and procedures of a museum\cultural
center. My experience is in the information technology area (information
systems design and development, database design, etc) and I have NO
knowledge in collection management systems for museums specifically, so I
ask you to excuse the possible misuse of terms in this e-mail.
This museum\cultural center is going to be opened in the year 2003 and it
will manage (exhibit?) different kinds of objects in different areas
(collections?): Visual arts, archaeology, ethnography and others.
The building is not ready yet so the experts (artists?) will be working in a
temporary deposit basically doing these tasks:
Inventory of the collections (including making digital photographs)
Classifying and cataloguing the collections
OK, this is my general scenario, now the points at which I would appreciate
any comments from you:
The fact is that the project needs to have computer applications that help
to manage the previously mentioned tasks in a automated way.
There's a first question I have: SHOULD WE DEVELOP OUR OWN SYSTEM OR BUY A
COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE OR MAYBE A COMBINATION OF BOTH?
We already have simple applications to make data-entry and basic queries
(developed in Visual Basic using MicroSoft Access), but I wonder IF WE
SHOULD BEGIN USING THE DEFINITE SOLUTION SINCE THE BEGINNING OR MAYBE
CONTINUE USING OUR EXISTING APPLICATIONS ADDING SOME BASIC FUNCTIONS
(CLASSIFICATION FOR NSTANCE) WHILE WE IMPLEMENT THE FINAL SOLUTION (OWN
SYSTEM OR COMMERCIAL APPLICATION)
Any comments will be useful,
Best regards,
TIA
Ricardo Lopez
Ingeniero de Tecnologia
Consultoria e Implementacion Tecnologica
Santiago de los Caballeros, Republica Dominicana
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