The National Portrait Gallery's system is like the Fenimore's. We refer to these objects as "pending acquisitions", and we assign them numbers that begin with "PA" and include the year NPG begins planning for their loan/shipment to NPG. Curators may work for years on a potential acquisition, but an object record is not entered in TMS until the curator (armed with all the necessary information, including lender name and contact info, object value and tombstone data) makes an official request to the registrars to initiate the loan and shipment so that the object can be brought to NPG and presented to the NPG Commission. After objects are approved-or not-at the next Commission meeting (held twice a year), they are either assigned a permanent accession number (the PA number is kept as an alternate number), or they are given an "NA" number, indicating they were not acquired. If they are not acquired, the location is updated to "Left NPG Custody."
I'm interested to hear more answers from others. Thanks for the good questions, Fatima! (I'll answer the other one next.)
Susan Garton (she/her/hers)
Collections Information Officer
Smithsonian
National Portrait Gallery
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From: The Museum System (TMS) Users <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Cassidy Percoco
Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2024 9:09 AM
To: ListServ tmsusers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: TMS records in the consideration process?
External Email - Exercise Caution
As collections manager and de facto head of TMS in my institution, I'm the one who creates and manipulates all records (with some edits from curators and the registrar in certain areas).
When an object is going to the Collections Advisory Committee, I create a "pre-entry" record (I think this is a term we picked up from our old database, SKINsoft/S-Museum) with the next in our sequence of pre-entry numbers, "TCRXXXX". Generally, if it's going to CAC, there's already been some level of approval - it's an artwork that has already been purchased, or that a curator intends us to accept, or a historical artifact that I'm going to advocate for because it will benefit our collection. (I am the first line of defense with the public and I will often decline on the phone or by email to the initial offer if it's obviously not going to be for us.) Once it's accepted and the deed of gift has been signed and returned, the registrar assigns an accession number, moving the TCR number to an alternate number field for record-keeping purposes. If an object goes to the meeting and get declined, the prefix is changed to "DTCR" (D for declined).
If there are just a few objects, I'll usually create a record for each to save time later, numbering them "TCRXXXX(01)" and so on. This way I can start cataloguing early, and if we do decide to decline one or some of them, they're already separated in the database.
If there are many or I'm low on time, I might do one record for the batch. If there's a long time between acceptance and assignment of a number and I want to get started cataloguing, I might separate them out into individual pre-entry records, but I'm more likely to wait until the number has been assigned and set, and then copy that initial record to create the new ones. If some of the large batch gets declined, we split the main record into .01 and .02 so that one can be accessioned and the other made a DTCR.
Cassidy Percoco
Collections Manager
Fenimore Art Museum & The Farmers' Museum
PO Box 800 | 5798 SH 80
Cooperstown, NY 13326
(607) 547-1494
________________________________
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Mahdi, Fatima (VMFA) <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Sent: Wednesday, April 3, 2024 4:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: TMS records in the consideration process?
External Email - Exercise Caution
Another question from Virginia:
If you create records for works that are being considered for acquisition before they are accessioned, do you always create a record for each individual work? If so, how do you deal with the uncertainty of the information on donations before they come in the door?
Do you sometimes create single records for group considerations, like 57 works by Hokusai from a single donor? If so, when do these group records get split to create a record for each individual object, and who does the work?
We appreciate your wisdom!
Cheers,
Fatima
--
Fatima Mahdi
Collections Information Specialist/TMS
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220
Tel. 804-340-1443
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Teleworking Wednesday & Friday
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