[MCN-L] Database access for curators?
It had also occurred to me that our experiences differ. The ROM has a healthy research staff, and the curators comprise natural scientists, archaeologists, and anthropologists, who tend to be a lot more computer and database aware than our decorative arts people, so suggesting that anyone else is better qualified at looking after the computer records in their case is absurd. I would also have to disagree that cataloguing an object is like cataloguing a book, an object or specimen's database record is more like the book, than the catalogue of it, and so the person most likely to correctly catalogue it is the actual expert in the nature of that object or specimen. RM _ Dr. Robert B. J. Mason (E-mail: robert.mason at rom.on.ca; fax (416) 586-5877) Dept of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, CANADA web: http://www.utoronto.ca/nmc/mason/mason.html Richard Light richard at light.demon.co.uk 6/24/2010 8:56 AM In message AANLkTikv88IgCKH20tsDA1YIfZHyEjcEfuQ98qeeYhWg at mail.gmail.com, Perian Sully perian at emphatic.org writes Likewise, I can't tell you how many times I've gotten into discussions with curators who want to delete the description field (used by registration for identification purposes) in favor of a more contextual, historical curated description. I have had to go into backups to restore the identifying description and re-incorporate it. These days, I'm in favor of a curator's description (or history, or curator's notes) field that the curators can use, in addition to a physical description field for the registration staff. Interesting how experience varies on this issue. I'm not sure whether it's a North America/U.K. difference, or simply one between larger museums who can afford to have IT staff to argue with the curators, and the sort of smaller museums I tend to deal with. Anyway, I agree that there is a distinction to be made between an identifying description, and one designed to bring out an object's cultural and/or historical significance. The latter is presumably destined for consumption by the public, and it would clearly be more helpful to include it, for example, in a summary record on your web site. In our Modes data structure we have gone a step further, and provided a repeatable Commentary element, each with a defined Audience. This allows multiple semi-structured descriptions of an object, each targeted at a specific sector of the public. This helps address the perennial problem of how museums can generate interesting web pages directly from the information held within their collections management system. Richard -- Richard Light ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Database access for curators?
At the ROM we have two main tables, one is the reserve of Registration, the other the reserve of Curatorial. The primary fields for recording any information we have about the object itself are in the Curatorial table. If your institution wants the db to have information which is correct and up-to-date with the current knowledge, then the curators should be in the position to properly catalogue in the db. They are the ones that know what is correct. R. _ Dr. Robert B. J. Mason (E-mail: robert.mason at rom.on.ca; fax (416) 586-5877) Dept of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, CANADA web: http://www.utoronto.ca/nmc/mason/mason.html Maggie Hanson maggie.hanson at pam.org 6/23/2010 1:09 PM Hello all! I'm new to the network and have a couple of questions to ask the greater group. I've just started a new position as the Collections Information Manager at the Portland Art Museum and in the first few weeks, I've encountered what I think is probably a very common problem. We use MimsyXG for our collections database and all of our curators have access to it, but are currently only able to enter/change information in the Description field. I've been approached by curators who would like greater freedom to add information and correct information in the database, but know that that can be a major risk. I'd love to hear how other institutions navigate this issue and what fields curators in your institutions have permission to use/access. If you do give curators access to more fields, how are you monitoring/auditing the changes that are made? I'd be interested to see some policies or guidelines that anyone has been using in this sort of scenario. Any input will be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Maggie Maggie Hanson Collections Information Manager Portland Art Museum 1219 SW Park Ave. Portland, OR 97205 T: +1 503 276 4224 F: +1 503 276 4201 E: maggie.hanson at pam.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Database access for curators?
I'd be interested to know what approval is needed by db staff to check the corrections of the curatorial staff. It is the curatorial staff that are experts on the collection, not necessarily the db staff. M. _ Dr. Robert B. J. Mason (E-mail: robert.mason at rom.on.ca; fax (416) 586-5877) Dept of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, CANADA web: http://www.utoronto.ca/nmc/mason/mason.html Perian Sully perian at emphatic.org 6/23/2010 1:35 PM Hi Maggie: I don't know if Mimsy has workflow capabilities, but some systems allow you to be notified of changes or let you see/approve the changes before they become live. Barring that, I've also instructed my curators to place the original information into a notes field before they delete it entirely (but I also have backups to refer to, in a worst case scenario). ~Perian ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Cataloging culture/nationality for archaeological andanthropoligical artifacts
We have such issues at the ROM, and have two approaches. For a group of fields we call Output fields, which are used for such things as gallery labels, our maker field will include such things as artist(s), including dates if some people like that in their output, or manufacturers, or schools, or cultural-ethnographic groups, like band of origin, for example. It is the lumping who made it field - distinct from chronological-specific cultural designations which we put under a Period output field. No, really, it works. For what we call our Data fields we break everything down to very specific entries, with very specific fields. It's a long list. This involves some degree of duplication at times, but it is the only way to have data we can manipulate, and have output that makes sense across a variety of disciplines. R. _ Dr. Robert B. J. Mason (E-mail: robert.mason at rom.on.ca; fax (416) 586-5877) Dept of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, CANADA web: http://www.utoronto.ca/nmc/mason/mason.html Cheryl Klimaszewski cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu 6/3/2009 4:05 PM I'm writing from the Bryn Mawr College Art and Artifacts Collection, where we have recently completed our initial migration of data from a disparate collection of Access databases to a formal collections management database. Ours is a diverse study collection that includes archaeological and anthropological artifacts as well as fine arts objects. We're wondering how other collections are dealing with cataloging culture and nationality information for objects that have cultural groups as makers as opposed to individual, known makers (also, where the cultural group may or may not always correspond to the same geographical region). Our concerns mainly center around objects of African and Native American origin. Though we're most specifically interested in how this data is stored in the cataloging system (i.e. Is the culture/nationality of the object entered into a designated culture/nationality field? Is an artist/creator record created for the entire cultural group? etc.), any general comments on cataloging anthropological and archaeological collections are also welcome. If anyone has a perspective on this that they would like to share, even if it's of the Oh my god, whatever you do, just don't do it this way variety, we'd certainly appreciate it. Good wishes, Cheryl -- Cheryl Klimaszewski Collections Information Manager Bryn Mawr College 101 North Merion Avenue Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 office 610-526-5093 cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] meaningless inventory numbers
Here at the Royal Ontario Museum we have a system in which we have the year as the first element, then a batch number, and then the unique identifier, sometimes with a further number for multiple component objects. The IT dept, however, likes to use the unique identifier from the database, which is just a number, so the curatorial types are always talking about the Accession number and the IT people are always talking about the RID#. Curatorial resists this, however, as people actually remember what the numbers mean, for instance I know that accession number 988.117.32 would be an artefact from excavations in Fustat, Egypt - all the 988.117. numbers are. Similarly people can remember specific objects and their histories from the accession number. So personally, I'd have to say meaningful numbers are a good thing. On the database, however, any link to the main museum image bank, the web, etc is done through IT's RID#, so in a way, we have the both of both worlds, but as long as you make sure you have a meaningful number that is unique for each object, it should work without a meaningless number. Robert Mason _ Dr. Robert B. J. Mason (E-mail: robm at rom.on.ca; fax (416) 586-5877) Dept of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, CANADA web: http://www.utoronto.ca/nmc/mason/mason.html Bas Nederveen B.Nederveen at rijksmuseum.nl 8/7/2008 6:54 AM meaningless inventory numbers The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is exploring the possibility to introduce meaningless inventory numbers, i.e. plain numbers without any references to additional information, such as for example purchase date, department or object status. We would therefore like to get in contact with institutions which have experience in this matter. Since this matter relates to database management it seemed appropriate to try MCN-L. We are particularly interested in the following: How do you catalogue related items such as services or (photo's in) photo albums? These item usually have a group record and separate object records. How do you record relations between them? Are you facing difficulties in daily practice if information can no longer be deduced from the inventory number? For example in your warehouse, while documenting etc. Are related object still easy to find (without immediate access to a computer)? What do your inventory numbers look like? Are you following any (inter)national standards? Sincerely, Bas Nederveen Drs. B. Nederveen Documentalist, Afdeling Collectieregistratie Documentatie Documentalist, Registration Documentation Department T +31 (0)20 67 47 230 Bezoekadres/Visitors' address Frans van Mierisstraat 92, 1071 RZ Amsterdam Vrijdag afwezig/Fridays absent De Meesterwerken/ The Masterpieces Rijksmuseum is dagelijks open van 9-18 uur. Op vrijdag van 9-20.30 uur met speciaal avondprogramma. Rijksmuseum is open daily from 9 am - 6 pm. On Friday from 9 am to 8.30 pm. www.rijksmuseum.nlhttp://www.rijksmuseum.nl ( http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/ ) ___ Rijksmuseum Postbus/PO Box 74888, 1070 DN Amsterdam Nederland / The Netherlands T +31 (0) 20 6747000 F +31 (0) 20 6747001 www.rijksmuseum.nlhttp://www.rijksmuseum.nl/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Archive materials - image sizes?
re born digital assets, we at the ROM have *lot* of digital images from fieldwork. The policy we have developed is that field images are selected by the field project director, and catalogued by them or their people - essentially if they catalogue it, we will archive it - and eventually make it available on the web. _ Dr. Robert B. J. Mason (E-mail: robm at rom.on.ca; fax (416) 586-5877) Dept of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, CANADA web: http://www.utoronto.ca/nmc/mason/mason.html Louise Renaud Louise.Renaud at civilisations.ca 1/8/2008 6:34 PM When dealing with scanned images, I find quite inspiring the new approach taken by RLG Programs and OCLC about Quantity vs Quality Access vs Preservation. However, working for an Institution where the photo collection is also comprised of an overwhelming quantity of photos taken during Museum events or field work record documentation, I would be interested to know how others are dealing with the triage of any huge incoming quantity of unique born digital assets. In such case, one could say that the statement Quantity vs Quality morphs into Quantity vs Preservation. Currently the Museum, through initial review, secures Copyright ownership - keeping only appropriate images. The Museum also deletes poor quality photos and assesses the importance of the deposit itself ensuring that it is in accordance with its mandate. These actions reduce the quantity per se but the number of individual photos can still be quite significant. Should other institutions be dealing with similar challenges and if some triage principles/rules could be shared, this would help us greatly. Thank you. Louise Renaud Manager, photos and copyright Library, Archives and Documentation Services (LADS) Canadian Museum of Civilization 100, rue Laurier Street, Gatineau, QC K1A 0M8 T?l: 819-776-8237 fax: 819-776-8491 -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Nik Honeysett Sent: 8 janvier 2008 16:40 To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Archive materials - image sizes? Bravo to Sam (the man with the longest title in Museum Technology) for questioning time honored advice. (Hmm... Time honored?). There are other areas where this thinking is being applied very productively, for example in software and website development. I know this topic has come up before, but I'm concerned by the do it once, burn to DVD, never have to do it again philosophy. Life expectancy for this media is not in the never range. If you are on a digitization initiative and buying large quantities of low quality media you should be wary of the life expectancy of your archive. You may _have_ to rescan or at least transfer to different media stock. In that regard a more appropriate resolution based on your institution's short- to mid- term needs (5-10 years?) may be appropriate. Storage is cheap, but this compounds the problem. Bigger, faster, cheaper means that you put more of your digital eggs in one media basket. If one out of 10 DVDs fail, you loose 100 tiffs, if one out 10 HD-DVDs fail, you loose 1,000 tiffs. -nik Waibel,Guenter waibelg at oclc.org 1/8/2008 9:37 AM Hi Perian, A lot of the responses you've received so far have advised you to go for higher resolution. I belief that this advice may make sense in certain circumstances (for example, original art, fragile materials or small high-value collections), but the situation you're describing is different (the documents aren't precious). I'd encourage you to weigh the intended use of the material in making your decision. The advice you received was accurate if your main goal is preservation, but that's not what your post led me to believe. If your main goal is increased access to as many items in your collection as fast as possible, I think a different approach may be more suitable. For those of you who will be surprised to hear me say this... Sam Quigley gave an inspiring talk at an SAA preconference RLG Programs organized in Chicago '07, during which he began to question the time-honored advice of do it once for all time, and argued that a model of rapid digitization for access may be just as valid to make museum collections available as quickly as possible. It made me (and some of my colleagues) refine our positions when it comes to digitization. Since I don't want to put words in Sam's mouth any more than I've already done (I suspect he's reading this!), you can listen to his talk at http://www.oclc.org/programs/events/2007-08-29.htm. Some of my colleagues who were involved in organizing this event put together a provocative essay called Shifting Gears, summarizing some of the forward-looking ideas discussed during the event Sam spoke
