Blank

Thanks Jeri,

Oddly enough, given the paranoia that is the norm at all museums, security is actually not the issue here.  They wanted something easy to drop objects into, but to still have a central place to make comments about the project.  It seemed appealing to them, too, if they could prioritize their groups and see all of the objects under consideration in one place, which is why I was thinking of the different venues.

 

We’re just taking our baby steps into making custom forms but if we were to use an exhibition record for this, can you visualize the possibility of bringing a field from the object’s deaccession area over to a custom form on the bastardized exhibition record?  Maybe that’s not necessary at all if we created user defined fields in the exhibition module.  Part of me would like to be able to streamline the process from their consideration of what to deaccession all the way through to the actual disposition.

 

Thanks for taking the time to spell out your thoughts!  This is a great help.

 

David

 

David Aylsworth
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Registrar for Collections
telephone:  713-639-7824
fax:  713-639-7780

From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 12:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mis-using Exhibition or loans module

 

Hi David,

 

I imagine the concern here is for security - wanting to keep the proposed list of deaccessions under wraps - which you can't do with Object Packages.

 

I see 4 good options:

 

1. Use Object Packages and give them names that wouldn't tip users off to what they really are.

2. Use the Exhibitions module and create a TMS Department that only the concerned parties would have rights to, assigning the exhibition record(s) to that department.

3. Use Designer Forms and the extra fields presented there to record information on the proposed deaccessions - you have drop-down authorities, dates, short and long text that can be configured and secured to the appropriate users only.

4. Use the deaccessioning screen with a 'proposed...' disposition. Your staff would need to query for all works with that entry to run reports.

 

I haven't actually done any of these, but they all seem they'd work! Just take care to balance their needs with yours (esp. for those options that require fiddling with security settings!).

 

Jeri

 

 

Jeri L. Moxley
Manager, Collection and Exhibition Technologies
Collection Management and Exhibition Registration
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
T:  212.708.9599  I  F: 212.333.1102  I  [log in to unmask]
PPlease consider the environment before printing this email.


 -----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Mis-using Exhibition or loans module

I’m making a little headway with getting our curators to use TMS for their projects rather than making up their own databases and spreadsheets.  A couple have asked me if they can use TMS as a planning tool for a deaccession project.  They want something more than just an object package that they can put object records into as a way of grouping and considering things that they might want to recommend for deaccessioning. 

 

Naturally, I want to encourage them to use TMS more and more, so I was thinking maybe of encouraging them to make an exhibition record, maybe using the venue features to include or exclude things from active consideration without actually removing it from the table too far.

 

What do you all think?  Is there a better suggestion?  It seems like this could get muddy, but it’s about the best I could imagine.

 

Thanks for any suggestions and advice!

 

David

 

David Aylsworth
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Registrar for Collections
telephone:  713-639-7824
fax:  713-639-7780