I agree with Mary Ellen. We especially have run into issues searching with diacritics in TMS. We want to use diacritics in primary names, however it means that you need to know that an artist's name has a diacritic in order to search for it. If TMS had an option like Mary Ellen suggested, and we include name versions without diacritics as alternates, that would seem to solve the issue and would be very helpful to TMS users. Ella Rothgangel Collections Database Administrator Saint Louis Art Museum [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mary Ellen Guerra Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:15 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Constituent Module: von, van, de, and other particles Hi All, Another point about variant names for constituents that Suzanne Quigley's reply brings to mind. It would be really, really useful if TMS had an option to search on either the preferred form of the constituent name or on all the variants as well. Perhaps it could work the way objects allows you to search on all objects or all accessioned objects. Mary Ellen Guerra Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington, DC 20560-0970 Tel: 202-275-1553 Fax: 202-275-1707 [log in to unmask] >>> [log in to unmask] 01/16/04 05:10PM >>> We have just been through conversion and we're beginning to use TMS, so I have been using the TMS Support Site for reference. In the Shared Resources, the Getty has provided documentation for how they enter data. They have an excellent quick guide to alphabetizing the artist names with prefixes. It is in the Getty's manual under "Adding Constituent Records"--page 8. It is useful to see how they have organized it. Suzanne Stephens Database Administrator Birmingham Museum of Art -----Original Message----- From: Suzanne Quigley ( [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:01 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Constituent Module: von, van, de, and other particles Hi Linda, Use ULAN if possible to determine the preferred spelling of the last name. Of course there will always be the oddballs - I will never forget that at a museum where I worked once upon a time, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was in the database as "van der Rohe", when, in fact, the whole last name is "Mies van der Rohe". It doesn't follow logic, thus look to an authority or establish it for yourselves for names not found in an authority listing. Cheers on a cold New York afternoon! Suzanne -----Original Message----- From: Linda Pulliam [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:50 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Constituent Module: von, van, de, and other particles If you have a moment, would you please let me know where your organization enters this information? Do you use the last name field or the middle name field? Staff here are of two minds about where it belongs depending on the life dates of the artists and their nationalities. Inconsistencies are leading to searching problems and the creation of duplicate constituent records. Linda Pulliam Manager of Collections Information Museum of Fine Arts, Boston