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