Good morning All,
 
We purchased the Re:Discovery software last year but I only began to use it these past few months.  We have the collections management side and not the archives and library modules.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) we are not transferring information from a previous computer system such as excel.  I am inputting all of the data from paper files into the computer for the first time.  I'm just finding the actual process difficult with no step by step instructions and I am a fairly computer literate person. One of the main things that I find extremely aggravating is that the help section on the toolbar is not comprehensive and the field helps are of the "build-your-own" variety.  
 
The training modules and the manual say that you can connect different portions of the records (accession, loans, catalog, exhibit, etc) together so that they all match, but I haven't found directions on how to do that. I am also still fairly new to the registering process, and it could be that I just don't understand everything the system is capable of doing because we don't do that with our records.
 
As for how I like the program (I would say "we" but I'm the only one using it at the moment), it seems like a really amazing program that can do lots of things for medium and large institutions, but getting the program to do that without extensive classroom training in Re:Discovery is mighty hard.  It would seem to work best for art and decorative art museums.  If you are a small museum with less than 100 objects, I would stick with Excel or some other program like Access.  
 
Thanks for the comments and the help.
 
Meredith
 
Virginia Beach Historic Houses
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
 



 

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