We took exactly the opposite approach here, for better or worse.  Our reasoning came to a belief that we wanted to have a one-to-one relationship between every non-virtual record in TMS to every “countable” object in the collection.  We consider a two-sided drawing to be one object in terms of the collection count, so we kept it as one record in TMS.  The object number will have an “A” and a “B”, to indicate that there are two sides, but we didn’t want to create two separate records and run the chance of someone make a location change for one without doing the same for the other.

 

I’ll be very curious to see Danielle’s webinar on separable objects.  It could be that once TMS can accommodate the distinction we will change our approach as well.  This will, of course, also increase our object count if we approach it consistently, but it might be more accurate to consider each page in a sketchbook as a countable work of art as well as each side of a double-sided drawing.

 

David

 

 

David Aylsworth

Collections Registar

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

tel:  713-639-7824

fax: 713-639-7780

 

Presenting North Looks South: Building the Latin American Art Collection

on view June 7 – September 27, 2009

 

 

 

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrea Liguori
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 1:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Recto/Verso Objects

 

We also treat each side as separate objects, giving them the same number but with the addition of an R or V, e.g. 2343R and 2434V.  We do this for many reasons:  differing mediums, different creation dates, and in some cases differing dimensions due to different orientation.  A fringe benefit of maintaining separate records is the ease of searching for all 2-sided works by querying on *R or *V. 

 

Andrea Liguori
Director of Research|Associate Editor
Richard Diebenkorn Catalogue Raisonne
3200 College Ave #2, Berkeley, CA 94705
510 428 1400 tel
510 428 1401 fax

 

 

________________________________

From: Alexis Lenk <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 9:13:54 AM
Subject: Recto/Verso Objects

Hello,

 

I am wondering if anyone can share how they treat recto/verso objects in TMS (e.g. two drawings – one on each side of a single sheet of paper). We have done it a few different ways and are looking to standardize our rules if possible.

 

Does anyone use: a single record with the information for both drawings crammed in? components? two separate records linked together (or to a third parent r/v record)?

 

The advantages to having 2 distinct records seems to be better management of the cataloguing data of each drawing, with the ability to attach specific images to that data. The advantages to having a single record seem to be better management of conservation reports, managing locations and loans, etc.

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

Alexis Lenk

Coordonnatrice, Documentation des collections

Centre Canadian d’Architecture

Montréal, Québec

(514) 939-7000 ext. 1520