Hi, Sari,
We underwent a conversion from Argus to TMS
last year. Argus has a Lexicon (TMS’s Thesaurus) that is a hierarchical
arrangement of terms which assist in searching the database. Not knowing your
level of expertise, I’ll briefly describe by showing an example. If I wanted
to search all European paintings, I could query by the term “European” because
the hierarchy is set to show “Italian”, “German”, “Swiss”, “French”, etc. as
under the term “European”. However, because I have defined this structure as
such, I can also search for only “French”, if indeed, that is all I want.
Another example is object name “Furniture”. Under that term I can put “chair”,
“table”, “lowboy”, “highboy”, “bureau”, etc. And under those terms I can
further define “chair” as “armchair”, “sidechair”, or “high chair”. Having terms
in a Lexicon demands data validation, so you cut down on the number of typos or
variations. (Of course, if you want variations, you just have to define it as
a “see also” term.) You get the drift.
Anyway, when GS migrated our data, the
programmer put our defined Argus Lexicon terms into the TMS Thesaurus. It’s
very handy for searching. As for adding this to a search in query assistant or
advanced query, you just go into the dbconfig→Manage→Query Groups. In the
Available Hierarchies, you seek out Objects→Attributes→Terms on the left-hand
side of the screen. You just click and drag Term (from the right-hand side)
into the Query Assistant for Objects. This would hold true for Constituents,
Loans, and Exhibitions as well.
While having terms defined in a thesaurus
prevents runaway typos (though not terms—organizing the thesaurus is a task
unto itself!!), there is a downside: reports. Crafting a Crystal Report using
thesaurus terms is annoying. It can be done, but I don’t wish it on anyone, but
if I did, it would only be on those who have taken CR training at Gallery
Systems.
Attributes allow for user-defined terms not
covered in TMS fields. I don’t know if I would recommend using Attributes because
of the reporting difficulties. However, because our data migrated in this way,
I am dealing with it. For searching purposes, it’s great. So, I would
recommend using Attributes for that, but try to stay away from having them
pulled into reports.
Christine
Christine Droll,
Collections Database Administrator
The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art
4525 Oak Street Kansas
City, MO 64111-1873
tel: 816.751.1333 |
fax: 816.561.0499
From: The Museum
System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cohen, Sari
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006
4:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Attributes
We
are currently not using the attributes field in the object module but we would
like to start using it for terms pertaining to subject.
How
do other institutions use this field and how can searches be done by attribute
type or value? I don't see a way to add this search to query assistant or
advanced query?
Thanks
for your help.
Sari
Cohen
Sari
N. Cohen
Collections
Manager
The
Jewish Museum
1109
Fifth Avenue
New
York, NY 10128
Tel.:
212-423-3352
Fax:
212-423-3232
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