Thanks Jeri,

Oddly enough, given the paranoia that is the norm at all museums,
security is actually not the issue here.  They wanted something easy to
drop objects into, but to still have a central place to make comments
about the project.  It seemed appealing to them, too, if they could
prioritize their groups and see all of the objects under consideration
in one place, which is why I was thinking of the different venues.

 

We're just taking our baby steps into making custom forms but if we were
to use an exhibition record for this, can you visualize the possibility
of bringing a field from the object's deaccession area over to a custom
form on the bastardized exhibition record?  Maybe that's not necessary
at all if we created user defined fields in the exhibition module.  Part
of me would like to be able to streamline the process from their
consideration of what to deaccession all the way through to the actual
disposition.

 

Thanks for taking the time to spell out your thoughts!  This is a great
help.

 

David

 

David Aylsworth 
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 
Registrar for Collections 
telephone:  713-639-7824 
fax:  713-639-7780 

________________________________

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 12:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mis-using Exhibition or loans module

 

Hi David,

 

I imagine the concern here is for security - wanting to keep the
proposed list of deaccessions under wraps - which you can't do with
Object Packages.

 

I see 4 good options:

 

1. Use Object Packages and give them names that wouldn't tip users off
to what they really are.

2. Use the Exhibitions module and create a TMS Department that only the
concerned parties would have rights to, assigning the exhibition
record(s) to that department.

3. Use Designer Forms and the extra fields presented there to record
information on the proposed deaccessions - you have drop-down
authorities, dates, short and long text that can be configured and
secured to the appropriate users only.

4. Use the deaccessioning screen with a 'proposed...' disposition. Your
staff would need to query for all works with that entry to run reports.

 

I haven't actually done any of these, but they all seem they'd work!
Just take care to balance their needs with yours (esp. for those options
that require fiddling with security settings!).

 

Jeri

 

 

Jeri L. Moxley 
Manager, Collection and Exhibition Technologies 
Collection Management and Exhibition Registration 
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART 
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 
T:  212.708.9599  I  F: 212.333.1102  I  [log in to unmask] 
PPlease consider the environment before printing this email. 


 -----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Mis-using Exhibition or loans module

	I'm making a little headway with getting our curators to use TMS
for their projects rather than making up their own databases and
spreadsheets.  A couple have asked me if they can use TMS as a planning
tool for a deaccession project.  They want something more than just an
object package that they can put object records into as a way of
grouping and considering things that they might want to recommend for
deaccessioning.  

	 

	Naturally, I want to encourage them to use TMS more and more, so
I was thinking maybe of encouraging them to make an exhibition record,
maybe using the venue features to include or exclude things from active
consideration without actually removing it from the table too far.

	 

	What do you all think?  Is there a better suggestion?  It seems
like this could get muddy, but it's about the best I could imagine.

	 

	Thanks for any suggestions and advice!

	 

	David

	 

	David Aylsworth 
	Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 
	Registrar for Collections 
	telephone:  713-639-7824 
	fax:  713-639-7780