It was created by a contractor for me when I worked for the National Museum of African Art, and upgraded again when I began work here at the Freer-Sackler. It is rather nifty and has allowed me link thousands of terms to objects based their inclusion in object packages.
A screen shot is attached. I would be happy to give anyone interested the name & email of the contractor.
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
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-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Felton, Larry
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Classifying Objects in TMS - Attributes - Nifty Plugin?
Chad,
We are also looking at using Attributes for more specialized classification of our diverse collections here at California State Parks. We are trying to keep the Classification field values very simple and general, but need some other alternative for more detailed, hierarchical classification schemes, and Attributes seem the only way to go (not that they don't carry their own baggage...).
I was intrigued with your reference to Jeffrey Smith's "... rather nifty plug-in to enable mass attribution of records." We'd dearly love to learn more about that utility (sorry if it has already been discussed by the group and I've just missed it).
Thanks,
Larry Felton
Associate Archaeologist
California State Parks
(916) 375-5923
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chad Petrovay
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 7:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Classifying Objects in TMS
If you are creating a structured language guide for the various formats, have you considered using the "Object Attributes" field?
Jeffrey Smith at the Freer-Sackler introduced me to the wonders of the Object Attribute Field, and he has a rather nifty plug-in to enable mass attribution of records. The classification field is a double edged sword, it only works if all of your objects are easily classifiable. The Walters uses an archaic numbering system for allocating accession numbers - is it a 54 for bronze or a 27 for sculpture? Since our accession numbering system provides a basic classification, we have not used the classification field. (In fact no one has view access for that field).
If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.
Chad M Petrovay, MA (Dunelm)
Collections Database Administrator
The Walters Art Museum
600 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
P: 410.547.9000 x266
F: 410.837.4846
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www.thewalters.org
Exhibitions:
The Repeating Image in Renaissance & Baroque Art on view 8 September 8 - 17 February 2008
Recurrence on view 19 September 2007 - 20 January 2008
Déjà Vu? Revealing Repetition in French Masterpieces on view 7 October 2007 - 1 January 2008
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users on behalf of Diggle, Kate
Sent: Mon 12/10/2007 3:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Classifying Objects in TMS
Season's Greetings,
Stamps comprise the largest portion of the National Postal Museum's collection. When initially cataloging stamps, TMS was used internally among collections staff and there was no public interface (ie: our collections website, www.arago.si.edu <http://www.arago.si.edu/> ). As a result, NONE of our object names for stamps contain the word 'stamp' in the Object Name field of TMS. Instead, stamps are listed by denomination, subject, & format (ie: 5c Woodrow Wilson block of four).
In a nutshell, we weren't stating the obvious, ie: that the object was a stamp,
because it was assumed that the staff was familiar with the collection and knew what objects were stamps.
Fast forward to present day: Our objects data is pulled from TMS for public display on the web. There is no way to find ONLY all the postage stamps in our collection, both online and in the database. I have been working with web programmers to indicate in the .xml code to attach the word [postage stamp] to every object that is indeed a postage stamp.
However, I need to distinguish, at nearly item level, what objects are truly 'postage stamps' ie: stamps issued as evidence of prepayment of postage, and which items are not, such as 'revenue stamps' ie: stamps used for tax on goods such as cigarettes, 'special issue stamps' used to raise funds for specific purposes such as land conservation (duck
stamps) and Civil War wounded (Sanitary Fair stamps), and on.
Furthermore, envelopes with stamps on them also need to be classified as 'postage stamps' as the stamp is often the reason the object was collected in the first place.
The former DBA also struggled with this issue and created about 32 different categories in the Departments field of TMS, some of which are object-type based, some of which are subject-based, and some of which indicate deaccessions & incoming loans.
In light of this gigantic project, I'd welcome any guidance on the best way to do this. We currently have about 180,000 object records. I'm contemplating linking object records to the AAT in TMS, populating the TMS Thesaurus with Library of Congress subject headings & linking to that, creating new classifications using the Classifications field, or using the Classifications field in concert with the Departments field to indicate different object types (ie: an envelope with a stamp). I've also contemplated using SQL to populate the Object Name field with the words 'postage stamp,' 'revenue stamp' etc where appropriate.
Many Thanks in advance,
Kate
Kate Diggle
Collections Database Administrator
National Postal Museum
Smithsonian Institution
Tel: (202) 633-5512
www.postalmuseum.si.edu
www.arago.si.edu
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