LISTSERV - TMSUSERS Archives - SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU

I'm very heartened to hear that we are proceding along similar lines. We do not yet have written data entry rules, although we have done much of the ground work during a recent exercise to clean basic tombstone data for the collection and long loans in on TMS. We are currently customising the latest build of eMuseum, which we use to deliver information in-house from TMS (and another system) to staff not involved directly in collection management operations. We are also seeking to formalise the use of TMS as a centralised source for information ouput and lookup - we hope to achieve this in the latter half of this year by running strategy workshops with key users or creators of collection information. By doing it this way we hope to broaden 'ownership' of the strategy, agree priorities for development and make a stronger case for any resources required to reap greater benefits from our existing systems. That's the theory!

Gillian and Stephanie,

Thanks for your responses. Stephanie, I didn't receive your attachment. It seems we are investigating similar developments in the use of TMS. We too use a guide for data entry formats, which was created about 4 years ago, and is getting kind of outdated. We are also developing strategies for broadening our collection documentation via TMS. We run an in-house version of eMuseum on our intranet site for staff in education, marketing, editorial, graphics, development, etc. to have access to collection images and information. Unfortunately, it is not easy to navigate without knowing exactly what you are looking for. In addition, many of our records in TMS are not complete and/or inconsistent in terms of data entered, which is a source of frustration. So, we are looking at upgrading eMuseum to the current version, cleaning up our TMS records, and formalizing our use of TMS as a centralized source for information output - both within the museum, through the web site, and potentially other media sources. So far, it has been more of a repository of collection information. As part of this effort I am interested in putting together a document that provides some structure to how TMS is used, accessed, by whom, and for which collections data activities.

Thanks for your input.

Assistant Registrar/Database Administrator

Seattle Art Museum
100 University Street
PO Box 22000
Seattle, Washington 98122-9700
206.654.3130 Direct
206.654.3135 Fax
[log in to unmask]

We are intending to develop a 'Collection Information Strategy' later this year. It will probably cover similar ground as TMS is playing an increasingly significant role in our collection information provision. We are just about to develop a plan for achieving this and will be very interested to hear how other museums have done it.

Gillian Essam
Collection Information Manager
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London WC2N 5DN

tel: 020 7747 2543
fax: 020 7747 2472
email: [log in to unmask]