I am very interested in the results of the discussions of your task force. This is the kind of issue that we have begun to focus on in my work with the Art Information Task force, A joint project of the Getty Art History Information Project, and the College Art Association, sponsored by the NEH. I hope you will make your results public. Do you know of the work of the AASLH Common Agenda Project. They published recommendations for documentation of history collection as an AASLH report, authored by Jim Blackaby. ["Manaaging Historical Data: The Report of the Common Agenda Task Force" included in History News, Oct. 1989.] Please keep us posted. J. Trant Consultant Arts Information Management 48 Wolverleigh Blvd, Phone: (416) 462 9404 Toronto, ON M4J 1R7 Fax: (416) 462 0960 Canada Email: [log in to unmask] On Fri, 28 Jan 1994, Wayne E. Wakefield wrote: > I am on a task force at the National Museum of American History trying to > define what the minimum amount of documentation is needed to make our objects > useful to the telling of our story. What do you in the field consider the > minimum? What is the "practical ideal." Does information storage technology > have an impact on the data collected? How far beyond administrative and > descriptive data should we go in documenting a historic object? What is the > best means of making this collected documentation accessible to the museum's > staff, scholars and the public? What forms might this documentation take? > Photographs? digital images? Letters? Journal articles? Catalog worksheets? > Computer files? > > Any answers? > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > NMAH, Dept. of the History of Science & Technology > Phone: (202) 357-2314 NMAH 5119, MRC 638 > Send E-Mail! It's faster! >