Greetings Chad & all,

 

In our system, the Title field was renamed/reconfigured to hold
philatelic catalog info. Therefore, the Object Name field is the only
place for object titles, etc. Furthermore, this field pulls over to our
online catalog, Arago www.arago.si.edu <http://www.arago.si.edu/>  and
so has to be somewhat consistent yet descriptive enough for the public. 

 

In general, we use Subject + object type. We use initial caps for the
entire subject name, followed by lowercase object type.

Ex: Rural Free Delivery wagon model

Ex: Railway Post Office mail sack label

Ex: World War II Patriotic post card

 

For stamps, we include the denomination and format. value + Subject +
format 

Ex: 1c Franklin die proof

Ex: 6c James Garfield block of eight

 

One thing that is regrettable about how our object names function for
stamps is that no one thought to put the actual word postage stamp in
the Object Name when describing stamps. When our data went live to the
web, the public was unable to search for the words 'postage stamp' and
get hits of all our stamps. We've devised some work arounds but I would
urge you to think ahead of the data-how will it be used in the future? 

 

Kate Diggle

Database Administrator

National Postal Museum

 

________________________________

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Chad Petrovay
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 11:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Object Name

 

Does anyone have a style guide for Object Name that they can share?

 

Chad M Petrovay

Collections Database Administrator

The Walters Art Museum

600 North Charles Street

Baltimore, MD  21210

P: 410.547.9000 x266

F: 410.837.4846

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www.thewalters.org <http://www.thewalters.org/> 

 

Exhibitions:

Mapping the Cosmos: Images from the Hubble Space Telescope through July
27

Faces of Ancient Arabia: The Giraud and Carolyn Foster Collection of
South Arabian Art on view July 20-September 7