Hi Sue,
I have tried to edit the links in Access, but am unable to edit the Ref Con
Xref table. I think that's because it's a view. The reason I like TMS so
much is because while there are plenty of text fields, there are also more
efficient ways to record and store information by linking data in one module
to another. Since copying all the bibliographic references into our
constituent records is impossible at this point, we are stuck with thousands
of links that cannot be edited.
Thanks for your input.
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] 03/14/05 09:03AM >>>
Hi Mary Ellen,
We have thousands of constituents linked to various artist and sitter
biographical dictionaries, and the 255 limit is a big problem for us, as
is
the fact that you can't create a new bibliographic record by branching to
the Bibliography Module from within Objects or Constituents. For the
Catalog
of American Portraits (where are bibliographic records are not as
comprehensive as those for the NPG,) we are now entering more information
in
the Bibliography text field because creating Bibliography records is so
cumbersome. And many of the bibliographic records that were migrated from
our legacy database are unweildy due to the 255 display order limit. If I
need to delete a constituent link, I always do it via Access, since it is
impossible even to find it otherwise. And when adding a link within TMS, I
dont' think you can play with the display order. I think it causes a
time-out if you try to make it something lower than 255. The constituent
text field idea is a good one, but we have so much legacy data that
transferring it all would be an enormous project, and our staff is tiny,
as
you know!
Sue
Susan Garton
Data Administrator
Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services
National Portrait Gallery
Tel: (202) 275-1842
Fax: (202) 275-1907
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Hi All,
Are any of you using the Bibliography module and linking multiple
constituents to a bibliographic record? At the Smithsonian American Art
Museum, we consult standard artist dictionaries (e.g., Who's Who in
American
Art) to establish basic life information about our artists. If we look in
the dictionary, we link the artist to the bibliographic record and
indicate
the person was or was not found in the dictionary. This is producing
problems when we want to edit the links if there are more than 255 artists
linked to a single bibliographic record. Has anyone else encountered this
problem?
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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