Events!  That’s a brilliant idea!  I’ll look into that a little bit…. Thanks to you both!!  I didn’t like the “apples and oranges” approach either, but to be honest, I forgot the events module was even there!

 

I’m with Chad – maybe Events makes more sense at this time (he always beats me to the punch).  This way, you keep the Exhibitions module clean.  Besides, a deaccession is a sort of event, isn’t it?

Also, besides having the ability to link objects and constituents, there are attributes where you can create an appropriate authority of search terms, and Text entries to use.  Also, each object linked has its own remarks field…

I was looking at the Deaccession and Disposal section of the db, and it’s not very fleshed out, is it?  It could use some attribute field functionality and text entry fields there too, at a minimum.  Maybe GS will add this to the list...?

Good luck David, whatever you decide.

Allison

 

 

The only downside I see to the exhibition module is that the exhibition module is for exhibitions, and I’ve never been a big fan of mixing apples and oranges.

Have you considered the event’s module? Our’s is unused, buts allows you to group objects together (much like an object package) including some more robust markup (then object packages). You could use the Sub-event 1 dropdown to mark the certainty that an object be deaccessioned (etc).

 

-----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