[MCN-L] Records for displaying unrelated objects together
Robyn: I haven't used Mimsy, so I couldn't say if it supports this, but what I've done with a few different databases now is to create an Exhibition record that links all of the items. But for individual, discrete groups, I've always had to manually massage the labels, then save the label to the individual records. These records will share a record that they were in an exhibition together, and the same label document or record, but have no other relationships. I know that's kind of fiddly, but that might be one way of attacking the problem. Best, ~P On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Sanford, Robyn rsanford at lacma.org wrote: I have a question for all of you data people out there. We're going to have a costume show of our permanent collection where mannequins will be dressed in complete outfits. This means that there will be objects that each have their own individual record in our database on a single mannequin. These objects may have had no previous relationship to one another in the past (they do not share similar accession numbers, etc, etc...). My dilemma is that we use the database to create our labels and of course we want to retain the label text in the database for perpetuity. I am not sure how to do this short of creating a single parent record in the database that links to them all, which I do not want to do. Aside from the expected questions of what number am I supposed to give a record like that, I also don't think it is a good policy to implement as users would be inclined to update the label text on the record for the labels and not the objects themselves. Or if they were so good to update everything, well then they are just duplicating data across 2 or more records which just seems unnecessary. Has anyone had to deal with this before or have any ideas? We use Mimsy by the way. Robyn Sanford Associate Registrar, Database Manager and Special Projects LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART 5905 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 90036 T 323 857 4769 F 323 857 6213 E rsanford at lacma.org mailto:rsanford at lacma.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] Records for displaying unrelated objects together
We occasionally cluster a group of works together and do one label, ie. Top to bottom is It might be the easiest thing to do these labels manually and record the text in your database. Otherwise you may be working very hard to create something that may cause problems later. Frank Thomson, Curator Asheville Art Museum PO Box 1717 Asheville, NC 28802 828.253.3227 fthomson at ashevilleart.org www.ashevilleart.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Sanford, Robyn Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:23 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Records for displaying unrelated objects together I have a question for all of you data people out there. We're going to have a costume show of our permanent collection where mannequins will be dressed in complete outfits. This means that there will be objects that each have their own individual record in our database on a single mannequin. These objects may have had no previous relationship to one another in the past (they do not share similar accession numbers, etc, etc...). My dilemma is that we use the database to create our labels and of course we want to retain the label text in the database for perpetuity. I am not sure how to do this short of creating a single parent record in the database that links to them all, which I do not want to do. Aside from the expected questions of what number am I supposed to give a record like that, I also don't think it is a good policy to implement as users would be inclined to update the label text on the record for the labels and not the objects themselves. Or if they were so good to update everything, well then they are just duplicating data across 2 or more records which just seems unnecessary. Has anyone had to deal with this before or have any ideas? We use Mimsy by the way. Robyn Sanford Associate Registrar, Database Manager and Special Projects LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART 5905 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 90036 T 323 857 4769 F 323 857 6213 E rsanford at lacma.org mailto:rsanford at lacma.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] Records for displaying unrelated objects together
Robyn, At the Musical Instrument Museum, we have had similar situations. In one exhibit, we used components from both a male and female costume in order to create the desired effect (this was a stilted Carnevale, and the female pants were shorter, emphasizing the stilts). To manage these, we created mannequin records, and created relationships between the costume pieces and the mannequin record. I gave a presentation at Collective Imagination last year that talked about conceptual art that incorporates objects from the collection. The example was the Parades of ceramics created by Gwyn Hansson Pigott at the Freer. The model I discussed was one where the conceptual art receives its own record (where label attributes are recorded), and a relationship exists between the individual objects incorporated into the conceptual piece and the record for the conceptual piece. However, these were developed for TMS, and I am not sure of how they would work in Mimsy. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Sanford, Robyn Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 11:23 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Records for displaying unrelated objects together I have a question for all of you data people out there. We're going to have a costume show of our permanent collection where mannequins will be dressed in complete outfits. This means that there will be objects that each have their own individual record in our database on a single mannequin. These objects may have had no previous relationship to one another in the past (they do not share similar accession numbers, etc, etc...). My dilemma is that we use the database to create our labels and of course we want to retain the label text in the database for perpetuity. I am not sure how to do this short of creating a single parent record in the database that links to them all, which I do not want to do. Aside from the expected questions of what number am I supposed to give a record like that, I also don't think it is a good policy to implement as users would be inclined to update the label text on the record for the labels and not the objects themselves. Or if they were so good to update everything, well then they are just duplicating data across 2 or more records which just seems unnecessary. Has anyone had to deal with this before or have any ideas? We use Mimsy by the way. Robyn Sanford Associate Registrar, Database Manager and Special Projects LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART 5905 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 90036 T 323 857 4769 F 323 857 6213 E rsanford at lacma.org mailto:rsanford at lacma.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/
