I haven't come up with a scintillating title for this event yet, but
I'm trying to organize a roundtable at AAM for discussing this kind of
thing. It will be in Houston next year.
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Tuck, Emily
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 9:15 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Culture, Constituent or Both
Jeri,
The Culture field in the Objects Module can be set to be a drop down or
a free text field. I can send you a screen shot of ours if you like.
We create a constituent record for the culture/tribe only if there is no
known artist, like with Pre-Columbian things.
Emily
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 5:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Culture, Constituent or Both
What are you using as the culture field? That field isn't a drop-down in
TMS.
And, are you saying that in the Constituents module you use the Culture
field to record nationalities? Why not use the nationality field? Or are
you saying that you put artist nationality in the culture field of
objects, as if the artworks themselves have a nationality?
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Tuck, Emily
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 1:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Culture, Constituent or Both
At the MFAH we are using both: because it is a drop down, the Culture
field is a convenient way of searching. In the Culture field, we are
able to collocate like culture groups, e.g.,
Pre-Columbian, Maya
Pre-Columbian, Mezcala
Pre-Columbian, Mixtec
Pre-Columbian, Moche
But we also create constituent records for culture groups when there is
no known artist, because this is what displays on gallery labels
whenever Culture is displayed on a label. It is a little redundant, but
no different from any other element where there is an indexed value and
a displayed (label) value.
We also populate the culture field for works with known artists. There
are problems, I'll admit, when an artist's place of legal citizenship
(nationality) differs from the place the artist was most productive (For
example, Picasso is Spanish but he was prolific in France and very much
influenced by French painters; he gave many pieces French titles.) Some
artists have multiple nationalities, and there is no standard approach
for how to populate the culture field in these instances. One might
decide to input whatever is the preferred nationality in ULAN, or input
all of the nationalities. If one puts all into the culture field, should
one list them in alpha order so they collocate, or by the nationality
which is most associated with the artist (in diminishing order), or by
the nationality most closely associated with the object's provenance? It
is very hard. CCO advises using this field when the artist is unknown.
Emily Nedell Tuck
Data Standards Manager
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
P.O. Box 6826, Houston, TX 77265-6826
1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, Texas 77005
(713) 353-1523
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From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Smith, Jeffrey
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Culture, Constituent or Both
The Freer-Sackler creates constituent records for cultures - this way
descriptive data can be added to each record, maps, archival images -
all the tools of the constituents module, plus the Xref fields of prefix
and suffix as modifiers. They are usually linked to objects with the
role "Artist" when an individual is not known but the work of art is
clearly representative of a culture, i.e. Ancient Chinese cultures.
Having it as a constituent also means we can list all the alternate
names, and in TMS2010 select the preferred name.
We removed the actual "Culture" field because people had been using it
too liberally. Constituent records have been a much better solution.
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Chad Petrovay
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Culture, Constituent or Both
We have yet to address cultures as constituents. Since the Culture field
is just a text field, it has cause problems, in that some objects in our
collection are shared by several cultures. We have this field set to
display as a distinct list in queries, which was to help promote
standardization on the demonyms entered. But we end up with "Igbo",
"Yoruba, Igbo", and "Yoruba" all as separate entries.
I'm liking the idea of using the constituents to help control these, but
in some ways, I also wish that Culture field was both a controlled
assistant and label field, the way that Medium, Dimensions, or
ObjectName currently work.
Chad Petrovay | Collections Database Administrator
MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard | Phoenix, AZ
85050
480.478.6000 main | 480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax |
www.themim.org
Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Burke, Ashley
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 4:52 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Culture, Constituent or Both
Hello TMS Users-
I have a question for you all regarding the preferred placement of
culture in TMS. Although there is a field for culture, I notice quite a
lot of people will also insert the culture into the constituent field.
For example, an Italian work that is unknown would have Italian in the
culture field and then under constituent (object related) would be
Unknown, Italian. What is the best option, culture only or both? One
of my thoughts is that it might actually be better to have it in both
places for exportation purposes. I would love to hear what other people
are doing and the reasoning as to why you would choose one over the
other.
Thanks!
Ashley
Ashley Burke
Associate Registrar
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
5401 Bay Shore Rd.
Sarasota, FL 34243
941-359-5700 ext. 1504
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