When at the National Museum of African Art, we used Classification and
Object Name in conjunction with a "Search Name" created in the local
Thesaurus. This allowed us to standardize object name conventions, while
letting the curators be a bit more expressive in the Object Name field.
Titles were reserved for objects with artist-given titles.

The "Search Names" were organized with guide terms that matched our
classifications. Even though it created a dual system to maintain, the
decision broke the impass we had in making these decisions.

Gallery Systems should integrate, or give users the option to integrate,
thesaurus-controlled terms in Classification and maybe even Object Name. The
classifications don't allow searching of narrower sub-classifications as
does the thesaurus.

As the TMS Help notes say:

" Each classification and sub-classification entered in the table will show
up as a separate list item in the Classification field of an object (as well
as in the Query Assistant and Advanced Query search options). Thus, for
example, a search for Textiles-Costumes only will not find objects whose
classification is Textiles-Costumes-Ecclesiastical-Embroidered. For this
reason, you may want to keep the number of sub-classifications to a
minimum."

Jeffrey Smith
Assistant Registrar for Collections Information
Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Smithsonian Institution
P.O. Box 37012
Sackler 1040, MRC 707
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
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tel: 202-633-0348
fax: 202-633-9770
http://www.asia.si.edu