Dear Ken,
sorry I am not able to locate your museum. What kind of museum is it?
In Germany, we have both, acquisition books and computer/card files on the
objects. Of course, you can manage the acquisition entries with an electronic
documentation system; good new systems transfer the used data quickly into the
inventory. But the acquisition book has another funtion as the inventory: The
acquisition book is a document, which fixes the circumstances and data, how a
certain (shortly described) object made his way into a museum collection (and
sometimes off, called deacquisition). Acqusition books contain the date and
signature of the donor for example, and the person (curator/director), who
accepted it. The acquisition book is a legal document which documents changes of
possession.
The data in the inventory are regarding all other information on the object,
like detailed descriptions, interpretations, and classification. The data can be
changed by qualified personel, but not the data in the acquisition book!
For these reasons, the museum documentation program IMDAS from Joanneum
Research, Austria, only allows two hardcopies of the acquisition book, one for
the museum and the other for the former owner, while you can prints as many
hardcopies as you like from the inventory... The museum copy of the acquisition
sheet can be stored in normal document files in a secure place.
As, for example, the acquisition book contains critical data like prices,
addresses of donors, or notes on the particular agreement (conditions etc.), the
acquisition file is not open to "anybody". As many different people work on
inventories (even students and secretaries), it is better to separate also the
computer data of the acquisition book from the inventory and to operate with
sepate user rights for both acquisition book and inventory.
Best regards
CMS
Verlag Dr. C. Müller-Straten, Kunzweg 23, D-81243 München,
Tel/Fax: 089-839 690 43, http://WebMuseen.de/VERLAGCMS
MAGAZINES AND BOOKS IN MUSEOLOGY (GERMAN/ENGLISH)+ GERMAN THESAURI
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