At NMAfA, we have a few exhibition attributes, and I've considered creating
them for loans as well, keeping statistics that way. I hesitate to add any
extra locations to the location authority, as it is not possible to delete
them, only to deactivate. Loan and exhibition attributes would allow users
to find those questions easily - it just means more maintenance for the
System Administrator.
Jeffrey Smith
Database Administrator
Smithsonian Institution
PO Box 37012
National Museum of African Art
Room 1110, MRC 708
Washington, DC 20013-7012
[log in to unmask]
phone 202-35-74600 ext. 242
fax 202-357-4879
>>> [log in to unmask] 03/21/03 09:10AM >>>
Hi all -
I too have been toying around with the idea of tracking our off-site
exhibition places (Continent, Country, State, City..possibly name of
borrowing institution) in the location authority ...but wonder if this
isn't
being redundant, and complicating the Location Authority - since the
off-site locations for a given object will be tracked in the Loans module?
I've attached a visual of our Location Authority, so you can see what I'm
talking about as far as setting up Countries, Cities, etc. as locations.
Again, I am a very new user to the system. In fact, we are just about to
sign off on our conversion, and are still not even actively using the
system
yet. But, I'm curious what people think about this idea - tracking the
off-site locations for venues in the Location authority, as well as in the
Loans module (like in the Attributes section)....would one be better than
the other?
What I would like is for people to have the flexibility to create a query
to
answer a question like - "Which objects from our collection traveled to
Europe in 2001?" or "Which objects have been on exhibition somewhere in
the
United States in the past 5 years". (we loan so much stuff, in such large
quantities, all over the world...that it will become necessary at some
point, to be able to answer these questions, for a variety of reasons...)
In order to harvest data to answer these questions - would the Loans
module
be the best place to query this data? Or, the Locations module? Is it
redundant in any way to have the information in both places? What
advantage
would it be to have the information in one over the other?
Thanks for any/all answers...
Allison
..................................................................
..................................................................
the warhol:
Allison A. Smith
Collection Manager / Database Administrator
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
T 412.237.8345
F 412.237.8340
E [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
W www.warhol.org <http://www.warhol.org>
W www.warholstore.com <http://www.warholstore.com>
The Andy Warhol Museum
One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
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-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Ellen Guerra [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 4:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Objects out on loan
Hi Dave,
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum the Location Authority has values
for Tour and Loan. The specific places are entered in Remarks. It is
useful for the Registrar to be able to see where it is on the location
card
and the remarks field being free text doesn't require a new sub-location
for
every conceivable place an object might go to.
Mary Ellen Guerra
Collection Database Administrator
Smithsonian American Art Museum
>>> [log in to unmask] 03/20/03 02:32PM >>>
Hi all,
I was curious as to how everyone is handling locations for objects which
are currently out on loan. We have 7 objects out on loan to LACMA right
now
and when an object goes out we update its current location to "On Loan"
and
that is a site in the loc hierarchy. Most of our users can't see location
because its a security controlled field available only to registrars,
curators and conservation. So we have a Status Flag that indicates that
the
object is out. Is anyone doing anything differently? I was considering
adding sub sites to the "On Loan" site that indicate the actual location
of
the object in the location authority.
For example
On Loan
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA
and so on.
Dave
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