Hello all--I am writing regarding a current debate over the best
software for our college collections. Since the museum collections are
similar in scope to what one expects to find at a small local history
museum (decorative arts, ephemera, photographs, etc.) I purchased
PastPerfect as our collections management system, and couldn't be
happier with it.  The college library is about to commence using it for
the archives, the biology department is using it for our natural history
specimens, but the director of the art gallery is resistant to it.

Her initial objections came from viewing the cataloguing screen, where
"Objects" is the blanket term used for all items save books, photos, or
archives; she thought that "Art" should be its own category.  Although I
showed her that there were specific fields for art objects, she said
that she is hesitant to begin using PastPerfect because she has not been
able to
find any other art museums that use it (I suspect this is primarily
because they don't have the need for the additional fields, not that it
is an unsatisfactory program for this purpose). Can anyone on the list
give me examples of where PastPerfect might be used as the primary
collections management system for an art collection, or give instances
of it meeting the needs of cataloguing art in general collections?

I am especially eager for us to have all of our collections in one
central searchable database because the big push here--as at many
institutions--is interdisciplinary study, and it seems silly to have
users search two separate databases to make sure they've found
everything they need.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide,

Christian Carr

--
Christian Carr
Acting Director
Sweet Briar Museum
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Arts Management
Sweet Briar College
434.381.6246 (phone)
434.381.6132 (fax)

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