Hello Fellow TMS Users,
We migrated our data to TMS in November of 1999. Since then
we've also updated our old systems documentation for data entry with the
TMS screens and a blow by blow use of fields. The documentation
evolves as TMS changes, we install upgrades, and identify new areas of
information to include in TMS. Our documentation is supplemented by
guideline or syntax rules for things like entering dimensions, use of
pre-fixes in constituent records, etc...
In general the Registrar's Office will enter all
"tombstone" or basic item description, copyright, accession,
deaccession, values, locations as well as collections management
information such as pending exhibitions, loans (outgoing and incoming)
and shipping information. Curatorial staff add everything else,
including exhibition history, provenance, bibliography, curatorial
notes. The Photographic Services department uses the media module
to track their inventory and manage the circulation of photographic
materials.
As we develop new areas of data entry, i.e. fielding provenance as
ex-collection related constituents, we bring representatives from various
curatorial departments together with our standards administrator to come
to consensus on the use of fields across collections. This is not
always an easy process. But once folks realize the tremendous gain
by standardizing across collections, there is enthusiasm and a
willingness to change. I do a lot of on going training and help
departments figure out ways to tackle large retrospective data entry
projects often with the help of part-time employees, volunteer grad
students or interns.
I'm happy to share our current documentation with anyone in charge
of TMS at their institution to make their own. These are all Word
documents, and like I said before always evolving. For example we
upgraded to version 9.15 build 1523 last spring and still have to update
our dimensions syntax rules to accommodate the very cool new ability to
field multiple occurrences of dimensions for a single object.
Amy Noel
Collections Information System Application Manager
The J. Paul Getty Museum
When we began the TMS installation, we formed a TMS project group
made up
of the Registrar office staff, the curatorial staff and a few other
staff
with major TMS involvement.
Before data entry began, this group met weekly for a long time to
discuss
exactly what information would be put into a field and how the field
would
be formatted.
We did this for the object module and most of the constituent
module.
Whenever a drop-down menu can be used, the project group negotiated
what
choices would be in the menu and when they would be used. This
is
especially critical for the classification selections and the roles
selections.
The project group also decided to follow the Getty ULAN naming
convention
for all constituents.
Finally, we drew up general guidelines for formatting data in the
fields
and trained the keypunchers to follow the guidelines.
Two important changes we made in TMS was to take away object
and
constituent record deletion capability for all users except the
System
Administrator. This eliminates the inevitable tragedy of a user
deleting
important records that cannot be replaced.
A full-time staff technician/ system administrator is essential for
TMS.
I hope this is helpful, David Parsell, Yale Art
Gallery
At 09:40 AM 7/16/2002 -0300, Anne Marr ( wrote:
>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w
=
>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word">
>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-----
>Sent: 15 July 2002 5:16 PM
>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-----
>Sent: Monday, July 15, 2002 4:15 PM
>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-----
>Sent: 28 June 2002 1:04 PM
>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
>