Hi all,
I'm still not clear on the "why" to this discussion - why manage the
initial phase of exhibition planning outside of TMS?
We manage all of our exhibition planning in TMS. We don't ever delete
object records from TMS, but rather leave them in for future reference -
both as a repository of information as to ownership of works that a
curator may wish to borrow for a future show or for research and as a
means to track lending/borrowing relationships with other institutions.
We do use Citrix for remote access (Bilbao and Venice access the server
in NY to manage their collections and exhibitions), but I don't think
that's an overwhelming reason we have been so successful at centralizing
the data management.
What do you do with all of those Filemaker databases? Isn't there
confusion for your curators about which data repository to update? Or do
the curators never use TMS?
Prior to the Guggenheim, I was at a very object-oriented institution
where TMS was used mainly for collections management, but here we're all
about the shows and only in the past year or two have had some focus on
developing the collections management side of TMS. Our TMS is pretty
unique, I think - as I've actually had staff here say, and I quote, "TMS
is great for exhibitions, but it just doesn't work for collections."
Perhaps it all comes down to where the field customization, data entry
guidelines, and report developments are focused (?)
Jeri
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Smith, Jeffrey
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 5:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Developing exhibitions outside of TMS
Our database for developing Exhibitions is a FileMaker database - and it
is fairly relational. It pretty much resembles the structure for
essential tables between Constituents, Objects & their related fields.
This was to make it useful fof one-to-many relationships we might need,
but easy to import into TMS. For each record, there's a "Add to TMS"
fields that controls what gets imported.
Jeffrey Smith
Assistant Registrar for Collections Information Smithsonian Institution
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery 1050 Independence
Avenue, SW MRC 707, P.O. Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012
tel:202-633-0348
fax:202-633-9770
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Laurie Soures \\ Eoj
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 4:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Developing exhibitions outside of TMS
Jeff,
Was your access DB "flat" (like a spreadsheet) and requiring mapping
mainly to the objects table... or did it include constituent and other
data which would require look ups to identify and link existing records
to the newly created object records?
Thanks,
Laurie Soures
Manager of Collections Information
George Eastman House
Rochester, NY
----- Original Message -----
From: "Smith, Jeffrey" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, November 5, 2007 4:07 pm
Subject: Re: Developing exhibitions outside of TMS
To: [log in to unmask]
> We hired a contractor to write the app - which is VB code inside an
> access database & uses an Access form as the interface to establish
> the ODBC connection and other set-up commands. Feel free to call me, I
can
> give you the programmer's information if you'd like.
>
>
> Jeffrey Smith
> Assistant Registrar for Collections Information Smithsonian
> Institution Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery 1050
> Independence Avenue, SW MRC 707, P.O. Box 37012 Washington, DC
> 20013-7012
> tel:202-633-0348
> fax:202-633-9770
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:TMSUSERS@SI-
> LISTSERV.SI.EDU]On Behalf Of Rob Morgan
> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 2:50 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Developing exhibitions outside of TMS
>
>
>
>
> Hello Jeff,
>
> I have data in a flat-table, Access database that has information for
> 9000 catalog cards. I would love to get this data into TMS.
>
> You stated that "each project gets its own . . . database and when
the
> records are ready, they are imported into TMS via an application
> designed for the purpose." What is the application that you're using
> to import this data into TMS?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rob Morgan, Baltimore Museum of Art
>
>
>
> From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:TMSUSERS@SI-
> LISTSERV.SI.EDU]On Behalf Of Smith, Jeffrey
> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 5:10 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Developing exhibitions outside of TMS
>
>
>
> The Freer-Sackler has been using FileMaker Pro 8 and a template
> databaseapproach to allow curators to collect all the information
> needed for loan objects in TMS. Each project gets its own FMP database
> and when the records are ready, they are imported into TMS via an
> application designed for the purpose. The data structure of each FMP
> database closely matches that of TMS.
>
>
>
> This helps solve the age-old problem of making sure all the data
> neededfor functional TMS records is complete, and puts the onus on the
> curator to gather everything needed, plus it's great to avoid a second
> round of data entry. But it doesn have its limitations.
>
>
>
> I would like to know how others are dealing with this problem,
> especially since TMS isn't designed for exhibition development. Also,
> are others cultivating the information in an outside database, and
> thenimporting into TMS? If so, how are you doing it?
>
>
>
> Are there good project-management tools that handle all the needs of
> curators, publications dept's and registrars for pulling needed data
> and related images together?
>
>
>
> I'm curious to hear how others are dealing with this issue - thanks!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Jeffrey Smith
> Assistant Registrar for Collections Information Smithsonian
> Institution Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery 1050
> Independence Avenue, SW MRC 707, P.O. Box 37012 Washington, DC
> 20013-7012
> tel:202-633-0348
> fax:202-633-9770
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
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