The answers below relate our experience with eMuseum and the Giza Archives Project website (www.mfa.org/giza).
Thanks,
Peter Der Manuelian
Giza Archives Project Director
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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www.gizapyramids.org
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users on behalf of Brenda Podemski
Sent: Mon 4/21/2008 7:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: eMuseum: How are you refreshing your data? How is it working for you?
(I've been having difficulties sending this to the list and have contacted some of you individually, so my sincere apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message--no need to reply more than once!)
Greetings -
We are trying to implement eMuseum for in-house use here at the Getty, and have been having internal discussions about how best to refresh the data.
In order to gauge how people are already using it, here is a short, informal poll of sorts for users out there who [are currently/have used] eMuseum at their institutions. I am especially interested in hearing from any Oracle users (I know you're out there), but welcome all input since we are looking at both platforms.
* * * * *
1. What platform is your TMS database? (Oracle or SQL Server)
Giza Archives Project: SQL Server
2. What platform is your eMuseum database? (Oracle or SQL Server)
Giza Archives Project: SQL Server
3. The standard data refresh process is comprised of several steps (make snapshot, thumbnailer, full-text concat). How are you running the refresh process on your eMuseum data? (Manually executing? Via Windows batch file? DTS? Other?) And why was your particular method chosen?
Giza Archives Project: we refresh from TMS to eMuseum once a month. We try to automate this process, but there are occasional glitches requiring manual attention.
4. Approximately how many records are being exported into eMuseum?
Giza Archives Project: We export from the following modules: Objects, Media, Constituents, Site, Bibliography. The most recent breakdown:
• 34,005 historic excavation and modern site and object photographs
• 3,813 individual Giza tomb records, each with its own database record
• 21,160 object records
• 2,833 records on ancient and modern people associated with Giza
• 3,105 Expedition Diary page scans and data from 35 volumes
• 9,904 plans and drawings (architecture, objects, wall scenes and inscriptions)
• 400 books and articles in PDF file format including OCR text-searchable conversion
• 4,464 pages of unpublished Giza manuscripts
5. Who are your eMuseum users? (internal staff? external internet traffic? something else?)
Giza Archives Project: The website is available to all, but primarily aimed at Egyptologists, archaeologists, scholars, and the interested lay public. So most of our users are outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
6. What are your thoughts about user satisfaction/experience with the application?
Giza Archives Project: Always room for improvement and interface enhancement!
7. What kinds of customizations did you implement?
Giza Archives Project: Various types of Advanced Search, of linking bibliography PDF files directly to object/media/site records, using "My Giza Research" feature, and an Egyptological thesaurus (in Media module, Attributes section) for searching images by content
8. What kinds of services/support did GS provide for your project?
Giza Archives Project: Excellent scripting support, background programming, website server maintenance and troubleshooting.
9. Any other comments about your eMuseum development experience that might be useful to someone following in your shoes?
Giza Archives Project: Full time web designer would add greatly to the aesthetic experience.
* * * * *
Replies may be sent directly to me if you prefer. Many thanks in advance for any information you are willing to share!
Best,
Brenda
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Brenda Podemski
Business Applications Administrator
Collections Information & Access
The J. Paul Getty Museum
www.getty.edu
v. 310-440-7087 | f. 310-440-7752 | e. [log in to unmask]
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