We have just been through conversion and we're beginning to use TMS, so I
have been using the TMS Support Site for reference. In the Shared Resources,
the Getty has provided documentation for how they enter data. They have an
excellent quick guide to alphabetizing the artist names with prefixes. It is
in the Getty's manual under "Adding Constituent Records"--page 8. It is
useful to see how they have organized it.

Suzanne Stephens
Database Administrator
Birmingham Museum of Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Suzanne Quigley ( [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Constituent Module: von, van, de, and other particles


Hi Linda,

Use ULAN if possible to determine the preferred spelling of the last name.
Of course there will always be the oddballs - I will never forget that at a
museum where I worked once upon a time, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was in the
database as "van der Rohe", when, in fact, the whole last name is "Mies van
der Rohe".  It doesn't follow logic, thus look to an authority or establish
it for yourselves for names not found in an authority listing.

Cheers on a cold New York afternoon!

Suzanne

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Pulliam [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Constituent Module: von, van, de, and other particles


If you have a moment, would you please let me know where your organization
enters this information? Do you use the last name field or the middle name
field?

Staff here are of two minds about where it belongs depending on the life
dates of the artists and their nationalities. Inconsistencies are leading to
searching problems and the creation of duplicate constituent records.

Linda Pulliam
Manager of Collections Information
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston