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It sounds like you have two issues that you are concerned about, one is tracking the different object containers, including past and present container locations. The second issue is the transfer of institutional knowledge between yourself and the next professional.

Within PastPerfect software, there is a space for object location, which includes areas for tracking the location of the object as a temporary and a home location. You can customize what you place within the database for those fields. For example, your temporary location could be on display and the home location is where its custom box lives. If the location is unavailable within your database, you could use the notes or the object description to include information about past containers. Whatever you decide, ensure that it is consistent throughout the database.

The second issue is transfer of institutional knowledge. Within your shared folder drives, there should be a folder just for collections, or institutional reports. When you have made your decision to input the location information into the database, write a READ ME file or a database entry how to file that explains exactly what you did. If it is consistent throughout the database, anyone who comes along afterwards, should be able to follow along. It should be standard practice to write these documents as you go. That way, should you have to leave a project for a year and return to it (as happens frequently in the museum world), you can read the document yourself to figure out what you were doing. If you are concerned that it will get lost in the computer drives, a printed copy in a notebook labeled “Collections” should do the trick.

Mary Beth Timm

Acting Director

Curator/Archeologist

Lost City Museum

721 S. Moapa Valley Blvd., Overton, NV 89040

Mailing address: PO Box 807 Overton, NV 89040

Phone: 702-397-2193 ext. 26 Fax: 702-397-8987

Email: [log in to unmask]

My usual work week is Sunday through Thursday.

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kate Swisher
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2017 9:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Question Regarding Locations for Object-Specific Storage Containers

I am interested in this too!

Kate

Kate Swisher
Registrar and Collections Manager
DuSable Museum of African American History
740 E. 56th Place
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 420-2745

Pronouns: she / her / hers

The DuSable Museum of African American History is proud to be a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate.

On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 4:23 PM, Erica Travis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hello all,

I am a contract collections technician, and while conducting an inventory for a material culture collection, we have come across several object-specific mounts and boxes for which we would like to maintain the association. For mounts, we have employed a system of registering the mount as a separate component and assigning a preceding "M" to the object's accession number so that we can track the location of the mount should it be helpful for future display or research. In many cases, the display mounts or bases are non-archival and may never be used again, but could possibly be helpful in the creation of new archival mounts or in provenance research (some come directly from galleries, collectors, and donors); other mounts are unsafe, do not provide adequate support, or simply take up too much room in very cramped storage areas and have been moved to another area (not climate-controlled, secure, etc.) and the location recorded in TMS.

More recently I have been wondering if there is a similar system for tracking boxes or even crates specifically used to transport objects, presumably with customized packing materials/interior supports? I ask because resources are, as expected, tight at this institution, and to avoid creating redundant object-specific containers and/or wasting materials would be preferred. In an ideal world, the object might be stored in or in proximity to its box, but alas. Most of these kinds of boxes are archival and labeled in some way with the corresponding object's accession number, but otherwise there is no way for someone to know if there was a box created for an object at an earlier time. Would I simply use a different preceding letter to indicate a storage container as was used for the mounts? I am the only original member currently on the project, with my time at this institutioncoming to a close soon, and I worry that due to the recent staff changes much of the knowledge of the collection and its history and quirks (including interesting storage locations) will be lost after my departure.

Thanks in advance for any help and my apologies for the length of this email!

Erica

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