On Dec 18, 1995 16:30:08, 'Melissa Taylor <[log in to unmask]>' wrote: >Our museum is currently evaluating the fields of information that we >record for each object in our collection. We are wondering if we are >missing any fields related to the object's value. So far, we have >Purchase Price, Insurance Value, and Tax Receipt Value. Are there >other types of values that we should be recording? It is important to remember that when recording information like "valuation" the contents of the field(s) are meaningful only when allied to other supporting data. Certainly if you have a valuation (be it purchase price, insurance value, etc.) you would want to record the date that valuation was made, who made it, for what purposes, the currency system used, and any misc. remarks. If it is a purchase price, you want to know the source(s) of the funds, Without these contextualizing data the information collected is more or less meaningless. In addition, many museums will want to keep a history of valuation data, may even want to create tickler reports that will be run at intervals to remind staff that an evaluation is due. A quick glance at the fields defined in the CHIN Humanities Data Dictionary(Revision 3, April 1993) makes the nature of this problem clear. Under the category Appraisal Fields the CHIN dictionary reports the following fields in which all valuations are assumed to be in Canadian Dollars: Inventory date Appraised value Appraisal date Appraiser Appraiser Company Appraisal References (Bibliographic resources used) Appraisal Remarks Appraiser Remarks Tax Receipt Request (y/n) Tax Receipt Submission Date Tax Receipt Value Purchase Price Price Code Purchase Order Number Purchase Date Currency/Amount Paid (for foreign funds) Source of Funds Purchase Remarks Insurance Value Insurance Code (instead of entering an amount, above) Insurance Evaluation Date Insurance Evaluator Insurance Company It seem obvious from the above list that "valuation" is a process that links a series of "actors" though an "activity" to an "object." The data model of simple systems will assume much of the contextual data. For example, "insurance value" will automatically mean "latest insurance value" determined by our "regular appraiser." More complex institutions will have to be sure they can document all the "understoods and givens." Note: the CHIN Data Dictionary is copyright by the Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1993, its official title is "The Humanities Data Dictionary of the Canadian Heritage Information Network." Addendum: The most peculiar valuation data element I ever found in a museum (actually a calculated field) was the following: Number of square inches per dollar valuation! -- Robert A. Baron Museum Computer Consultant P.O. Box 93, Larchmont N.Y. 10538 [log in to unmask]