On Tue, 8 Aug 1995 Michel Fingerhut <[log in to unmask]> said:


>Princeton Library gives online access to scanned images of its card
>catalogue (as well as to a "regular", computerized catalogue).  Wouldn't
>that be a way to preserve the historical and integrate it into the
>technological?

The above solution may be too expensive for a low-use application such as a
museum accession card catalogue.  I assume that Princeton's use of scanned
images for library cards only includes those cards that contain information
that has not been integrated into the automated system.  In that sense it
is a good idea.

The accession cards I cited in an earlier post were used by curators to
determine whose work they were reading -- a process that dated the entry by
style of typewriter used and attributed the work on the basis of
handwriting.  Simply creating on-line scanned copies of these files may
provide a moderate degree of increased efficiency of use, but, as such, it
does little to capture the intelligence of the current curators.  After a
generation or two of new curators the meaning of the type and handwriting
styles can easily become lost.

By all means, scan the cards, take the originals out of use and archive
them, link the scanned images to the database, but don't forget (if needed)
to interpret their contents for later researchers.
--
______________________________________

Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont, NY 10538
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