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