Just to throw in my two cents, I am a huge fan of Find Object and Find
Constituent. I was not really aware of these searches until reading the
manual more fully when taking over from my predecessor, and I have to say I
use both of them for %95 of my searching, which are usually just quick
look-ups. (The Control+F shortcut is the best thing ever!) I am trying to
spread the word to the staff, but I would also like to invest in a
"Jeri-pencil' when you come out with them! And I would also throw in my
vote for the Find Object and Find Constituent (with the keyfield search)
becoming more prominent.
Thanks for putting up some of those comments everyone, glad to know others
are getting the same responses from people I am!
Diane
==========================================
Diane Lee, Collections Manager * 860-236-5621 x242
Connecticut Historical Society
_____
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
Hi Amber,
My best advice is to read the manual. I have many years of experience, but
the manual is still how I know 90% of what I know about how the system works
and how to configure it.
Keyfields are in the constituent lookup accessed from Find Object and also
when linking constituents to another module.
Find Object is a 'quick search'-type assistant with limited fields, but note
that results from a Find Object search can be refined with the Query
Assistant.
Best,
Jeri
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Morgan, Amber
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
Robert, thanks for that bit of good news about the changes in the upcoming
release.
David, your description made perfect sense to me, but maybe it's because
we're having the exact same problem.
Jeri, let me make sure I understand what method you're suggesting before I
disagree with you - this keyfield search is accessed through Find Object,
not Query Assistant, correct? Find Object only allows limited types of
searches; you can't build as complex a search as you can in Query Assistant.
I've looked in the DB Config under Query groups and I'm not sure if there's
a way to add constituent keyword searching to Query Assistant. If
Constituent Keyfields can be added to Query Assistant, then perhaps you are
right and the other Constituent fields are unnecessary.
Let me also add that I'm fairly new to administering this system and a lot
of my training has been sort of backwards and ad hoc - so maybe I completely
misunderstand this!
Thanks,
Amber
_____
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of David Armstrong
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
David,
Sometimes the answer is to educate the users. If a user consistently came
to me with the situation described, I would probably have something flippant
to say like. "You know, the last time I went into the lady's room, I
couldn't find a urinal. If you're looking for the wrong thing in the wrong
place, you aren't going to find it." Your mileage may vary. ;)
_____
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 3:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
Actually, I agree with you very much. The problem is that since there ARE
the other fields there, getting users here to NOT use them is next to
impossible. We've got it defaulted so that you would search keyfield first,
but invariably I have people who immediately click down into "Last Name"
since they think they're doing the right thing.
I guess most of us are used to filling out forms where Last Name is an
option, but keyfield is not, so the comfort factor is greater to go to the
obvious field that you know. I know I've told the same people over and over
again to use Keyfield, but they persist in going to last or first name.
Should we start a petition to make the other fields go away?
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 4:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
Right - only Keyfields will search the alternate names.
Since Keyfields searches everything at once, why do we need the other fields
to do the same?
I personally wish the other fields could go away, and I very actively
discourage my users from searching with anything other than Keyfields
because you can't 100% predict how a name is entered, and - why click in
another field when you don't have to?
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 4:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
Hi Jeri and Amber,
One of the things that it does NOT do, though, is search the alternate names
by the fields that you enter information into. At least I can't set it up
to do it the way that we think is logical.
For instance, I have an alternate name broken out into First Name = Joe,
Last Name = Blow (Of course, his main constituent name is "Joseph
Blowsalot"). Everything works great when I use the Find Constituent to
search "Keyfield = Blow". If I do that, I get the record for "Joseph
Blowsalot".
It falls apart, though, if I use the Find Constituent and search by "Last
Name = Blow". That will NOT return the record for "Joseph Blowsalot", even
though I clearly have "Blow" in the alternate name Last Name field.
I'm probably not making much sense. I actually had Dimitry exasperated by
the time I got him to understand what I was trying to say, but it remains
one of those things that seems like it SHOULD work, but doesn't. Not being
a programmer, it seems like a simple fix to have the FIND OBJECT search
Alternate Names by fields other than just Keyfields, but it probably isn't..
David
David Aylsworth
Collections Registar
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
tel: 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, February 25, 2009 3:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate names
Hi Amber,
When you use 'Keyfields' in the constituent lookup in Find Object, it
searches across constituent name fields (first name, last name, institution,
nationality and so forth) as well as all alternate names.
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 Morgan, Amber
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 3:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Searching alternate names
Does anyone have their db configured for searching alternate names? In our
set up, if you try searching an alternate name from the objects module, or
if you go into constituents and search "last names," it only searches the
primary name, not the alternate names. I tried playing around with the
query groups, but when I add "Alternate Names" into the Query Assistant, it
adds another "first name" and "last name" field - so someone doing a search
on a last name wouldn't know for sure if they were searching primary name or
alternate name.
So, question 1: Can I change how these fields appear in the Query
Assistant? I thought for sure this could be done, but I can't figure out
how to do it.
Question 2: What if I don't want to separately search primary name and
alternate name? Is there a way to combine these two searches easily? I can
do it in Advanced Query, but I'm thinking of our average users who are
scared of Advanced Queries.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Amber
the warhol:
Amber E. Morgan
Associate Registrar
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
T 412.237.8306
F 412.237.8340
E [log in to unmask]
W www.warhol.org
The Andy Warhol Museum
One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Email newsletter http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/email
Membership http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/SupportCMP
|
