At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, we use the bibliography module to
cite sources consulted for information about our artists. For unusual
entries, we have created special bibliography records, for example,
Correspondence about the artist. This covers telephone, mail or email
sources. We use the cross reference fields, attribution notes and statement,
to note who communicated with whom and the date or the edition number of a
book and any discrepancies between the entry in the book and that in the
constituent record.

The difficulty with this is that TMS does not like to link more than 255
constituents to a bibliography record. There have been some improvements on
this score, but it is still clumsy. I don't recall whether this will work
better in version 9.3.

Mary Ellen



Mary Ellen Guerra
Collection Database Administrator
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, DC 20560-0970
Tel: 202-275-1553
Fax: 202-275-1707
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>>> [log in to unmask] 09/11/06 11:24AM >>>
I was wondering how others out there enter in source information into
the constituents module?



At the moment, I ask users to add text entries to constituent records to
say where the name, dates, address, etc. information comes from (i.e.
Grove, ULAN, such-n-such website, letterhead).  Text entries work well
when the constituent requires explanation (such as there are conflicting
sources and the curator wants to use source A).



However, adding a text entry is not something that everyone likes to
take the time with, nor is it easy to view on the front screen.  I'm
thinking that it would be nice to have a field, maybe even a drop-down,
where users can quickly pick a source, or type in a quick source and
date of access.  How do others deal with this issue?  Is there a
creative solution out there?



Thank you,



Ella





Ella Rothgangel

Collections Database Administrator

Saint Louis Art Museum

One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park

St. Louis, Missouri  63110

telephone 314.655.5408  facsimile 314.721.6172

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