David - thank you so much for sending this article -
This is the type of discussion I've been dying to have with colleagues -
I'm so glad that someone is addressing the larger issues of standards,
access, and sustainable efforts in a formal paper (thanks Murtha and
Erin!). Issues about field, formatting, thesauri, and data exchange
standards in the museum field is not a new discussion, but opinions are
still changing and ideas being mostly vetted even to this day, much less
being formally adopted by the larger community (what ever happened to
the idea of adopting CIMI's best practice for Dublin Core??).
Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do. This article begins a much
needed discussion.
So, in answer to your original question (which I intended to answer
today at some point), what you might consider is that you need
cataloguing / meta data staff. Part of my job (the most time consuming
part, after I set up the system according to best practice and available
standards in the first place) is to catalogue the collection and make
sure that the information is entered into the database according to
standards which facilitate access, and make sure that the data is
consistent. Other, more knowledgeable people on staff (curatorial
staff) add to the "content" at this point, mainly by sending me text
panel information and other historical information about the object,
including information about dates and subjects. I make sure the content
is put in the correct fields in the object record, and that the correct
links are maintained. It works for now - I haven't heard any
complaints, and people seem to be finding what they need. But I am only
one person, needing additional help desperately. The collection is
vast, and cataloguing is time consuming. We still haven't even tackled
getting the data on-line, which is coming, and is also a fairly
stressful prospect, as so much work still needs to be done, and we
haven't even addressed additional staffing needs.
Anyway, depending on how your institution is structured, and depending
on who is already doing what in the system - a cataloguing position may
or may not be an easy sell. But, the article you sent outlines the
issues brilliantly - so perhaps you should send it to your
director/manager. It may help you make the case.
Good luck!
Allison
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the warhol:
Allison A. Smith
Collection Manager / Database Administrator
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
T 412.237.8345
F 412.237.8340
E [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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Email newsletter http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/email
Membership http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/SupportCMP
The Andy Warhol Museum
One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
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They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to
change them yourself -- Andy Warhol
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-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Data Standards Manager
Thanks to both of you for responding so intelligently. It could be that
I'm feeling overwhelmed by the challenge of both getting TMS more and
more functional as well as trying to define the standards at the same
time, but I still see there being justification for both positions.
Someone sent me this article from the Getty that got my juices flowing
that such an extravagance could be justified...
http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Jun-04/coburn_baca.html
But then again, I could be deluding myself... It seems like I go through
this every year about this time.... until the budgets come out and I see
what got scratched off of my list!
But, thanks again.
David
David Aylsworth
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Registrar for Collections
telephone: 713-639-7824
fax: 713-639-7780
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Chad Petrovay
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Data Standards Manager
I'm the Collections Database Administrator, so I oversee the
functionality of TMS, and am involved with almost every project that
takes advantage of the data in the database. One of my first tasks was
to create standards for the data, and while I do agree with David that
the task is pretty front end - it's never quite done.
Example: We created a very thorough geography labeling system. Places
that no longer exist like Ur would be labeled as 'Ur (in present-day
Iraq)' while modern locales would be 'Paris, France'. The labels are
generated by the computer when being exported to the web, and take
advantage of the city, country, region, locus field. I thought I had my
ground covered, but there are a hundred exceptions. Each exception
requires a revision of the standards.
Secondly, new standards are being adopted all the time. If you aligned
your standards to CCO and CDWAlite, what happens when museumDat is
revealed? This requires monitoring developments in the field, as well as
alterations to TMS's data structure during upgrades. So, downtime yes,
but someone still needs to do the monitoring.
Finally, there is monitoring the data within TMS for quality control. We
have a lot of curators, fellows, etc, who have access to TMS because
they are working on advancing the research and academic knowledge of our
collection. They are not always as conscious of the standards as they
should be, and so we monitor their alterations to make sure that they
comply with our standards, make necessary alterations, and when,
necessitated, "interventions."
At the end of the day, that's a lot to do, but as I am responsible for
the data that is in TMS, and how it is extracted, I am happy to have
that oversight of both the database and the standards. But I wouldn't be
able to do it without dedicated support staff.
My two cents. ~Chad
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users on behalf of David Armstrong
Sent: Tue 4/29/2008 6:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Data Standards Manager
The question that initially comes to my mind is, "What will the Data
Standards Manager do after the standards are developed and put in
place?" It seems like the data standards manager position is simply an
initial job responsibility for the TMS administrator. For what it's
worth, my title is Database Administrator and I'm in charge of all the
databases at my institution. I spent the first year getting TMS in
shape and it is pretty well sorted out. Now I'm working on integrating
it with a Digital Asset Management System. I'm also working on setting
up a new ticketing system that will integrate with our current
membership system.
It has been my experience that although getting TMS setup and running
right takes a lot of effort at first, once you have it setup it pretty
much runs itself. The hard work is developing the standards, developing
the reports and developing the training materials so that the users are
comfortable using it. Once you've done that it just like any other
application.
________________________________
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 3:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Data Standards Manager
I am very interested in hearing from any institutions that have a Data
Standards Manager as part of their staff. I'm trying to push through
getting BOTH a TMS Administrator as well as a Data Standards Manager.
Admittedly they would work together very closely, but I've begun
thinking that it is justifiable to have a separate person who can hash
out the standards for our institution and see that they come into line
with other institutions, letting the TMS Administrator focus on the
functionality of the system.
Am I dreaming too big or too small? How does such a person start? How
much of a Nazi do they need to be? Any advice or comments would be
appreciated...
Thanks,
David
David Aylsworth
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Registrar for Collections
telephone: 713-639-7824
fax: 713-639-7780
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