We use PastPerfect at The Museum of Ashe
County History. The program is pretty intuitive, but I recommend you read
the manual all the way through before starting with entries. Also,
PastPerfect has training DVD’s that will walk you through the entry
process, and the telephone help and online help services have been very
forthcoming when we have called on them.
The first entries you need to make are the
names, addresses and other information for your Contacts list. You should
enter all your existing contacts, and then make sure you enter new donors
before trying to enter their accessions. That way, you will be able to
call the donor information from the list without having to enter it all separately.
One of the benefits of an off-the-shelf
program is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The program
is built on standard museum practices that have been tested at other
institutions and conform to generally accepted standards. If you follow
the program, it will keep your wheels between the white lines. For
example, their advice on three-part registration numbers is particularly
valuable. It will result in a system that is simple, functional and familiar
to personnel who may come in from other institutions.
Don Long
Curator
The Museum of Ashe County History, Inc.
336-846-1904
From:
Sent: Wednesday, September 02,
2009 1:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L]
I like the book, "Registration Methods for the
Suzanne
-----Original Message-----
From: Angela Hoover <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, Sep 2, 2009 11:53 am
Subject: [MUSEUM-L]
Does anyone know of any resources (books, articles, websites) that deal with
creating a numbering system for an already existing museum?
I recently took a job as a catologuer at a museum that has ~5000 items in its
collection. They used Filemaker Pro to record information on each item, but the
only two pieces of information that were consistently recorded were the item's
country of origin and the object name. Half of the items have donor names and
dates, while the other half do not.
The museum just obtained PastPerfect software, and I'm at a loss for how to
begin entering these items! How do I accession these items (especially those
that have no donation date), and what kind of numbering system is ideal for this
situation?
Thanks in advance!
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If you
decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read
"Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).