This is an issue I've also been working on and am curious to
know what other TMS using institutions are doing.
I have produced a TMS data entry manual which is part
instructional guide to doing the actual data entry in TMS,
and part style guide. As I work on this one manual it is
becoming clear that we might benefit from a data entry
manual (an extract from the TMS User's Manual) and a style
guide (Data content and formats) as separate references.
Are any other of you heading in this direction?
Also, I am curious to know what sorts of data entry other
institutions are allowing outside of the Registrar's or
Collections Management office. At the Freer/Sackler we
have, in the past two years, begun to allow our curators to
do their own data entry to the Curatorial Remarks,
Description, Label Copy, Bibliography, Published References,
Provenance, Title and Multi-Text entry fields. The curator
has a data entry training session with me and I give them a
one-page style reference and the appropriate security
rights. Their rights allow them to Add new entries, but not
edit or delete previous entries which are part of the
objects record of scholarship even when they disagree with
the content. Thus far, this has been a successful
development and the curators seem pleased to have direct
access and some power over the data content of their
objects. Although one problem has been achieving
parallelism in the data where there are format and content
differences practiced by various specialists.
A further problem we have encountered is the difference
between our in-house, TMS data content/style and a style
that is effective and appropriate for public access/delivery
to the web. For the purposes of the TMS record we aim to
capture specialist data for the asian art initiated user
(primarily our staff, docents and visiting researchers).
But as we work toward putting collections data on the web
via both an in-house developed web site and eMuseum we have
found that the content must be reformatted for the asian art
novice or visiting public. Has anyone else dealt with this
issue of turning, what have historically been, collections
managements research and inventory systems into something
accessible and meaningful to the "general public?"
David
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/16/02 08:39AM >>>
I am working hard on a data-entry manual for our
institution too. I also
needsome one with more experience.
The fact is that we have different small museums (in fact
all are small)
in the Netherlands Antilles. The Manual I am working on is
for the new
user to implement the TMS fast, without having to be going
through the
Big GS Manual.
Regards,
Lida Pandt
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Anne Marr (
Sent: dinsdag 16 juli 2002 8:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Policies & Procedures
I don't know what happened to the rest of my message, I
must have hit
send before I was finished. I mean all of those Linda. I
have been
attempting to produce an institutional data-entry manual,
and I'm sure
there must be a lot of you out there with much more
experience than I
have, who could share their experiences. For instance do
you have your
own classification system or do you use Chenhall (sp?) or
something
else? Really, any advice would be welcome, even to know
what pitfalls
to avoid would be a help.
As far as the technical and administrative end of things
are concerned,
I admit I am out of my technological depth. We have a
casual IT person
who looks after that at the moment but I feel that the
museum really
needs a dedicated IT position.
Anne
-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Pulliam [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 July 2002 5:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Policies & Procedures
Ann,
Do you mean data entry standards, (capitalization,
punctuation, etc.),
field use standards, or process standards?
Linda Pulliam
Manager of Collections Information
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Marr ( [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2002 4:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Policies & Procedures
I'd like to introduce myself as a new user to the group.
My name is
Anne Marr and I am the Registrar at the New Brunswick
Museum in Saint
John, New Brunswick, Canada. We have been using TMS for
over a year now
but we are still wrestling with problems with our data,
not, I hasten to
add, Gallery Systems' fault, but rather with the original
data that was
converted from CHIN (Canadian Heritage Information
Network). Just
trying to get my head around the idea of relational versus
flat-file
databases is big deal to me! I would, like Jack, be
interested in the
experiences of others so that I don't feel that I'm
reinventing the
wheel trying to develop standards and .
Regards
Anne Marr
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Edwards [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 28 June 2002 1:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Policies & Procedures
Alberta Community Development is a new user to TMS. We are
looking for
documentation, policies, procedures, best practices, etc
related to the
implementation of TMS. Any information that is available
would be
appreciated.
Regards
Jack Edwards
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