-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS)
Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Morgan, Amber
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009
10:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate
names
Robert, thanks for that bit of good news
about the changes in the upcoming release.
David, your description made perfect sense
to me, but maybe it’s because we’re having the exact same
problem.
Jeri, let me make sure I understand what
method you’re suggesting before I disagree with you – this keyfield
search is accessed through Find Object, not Query Assistant, correct?
Find Object only allows limited types of searches; you can’t build
as complex a search as you can in Query Assistant. I’ve looked in
the DB Config under Query groups and I’m not sure if there’s a way
to add constituent keyword searching to Query Assistant. If Constituent
Keyfields can be added to Query Assistant, then perhaps you are right and the
other Constituent fields are unnecessary.
Let me also add that I’m fairly new
to administering this system and a lot of my training has been sort of
backwards and ad hoc – so maybe I completely misunderstand this!
Thanks,
Amber
From: The Museum System
(TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Armstrong
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
6:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching alternate
names
David,
Sometimes the answer is to educate the
users. If a user consistently came to me with the situation described, I
would probably have something flippant to say like. “You know, the last
time I went into the lady’s room, I couldn’t find a urinal.
If you’re looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place, you
aren’t going to find it.” Your mileage may vary. ;)
From: The Museum System
(TMS) Users [mailto:TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU]
On Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
3:10 PM
To: TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU
Subject: Re: Searching alternate
names
Actually, I agree
with you very much. The problem is that since there ARE the other fields
there, getting users here to NOT use them is next to impossible. We’ve
got it defaulted so that you would search keyfield first, but invariably I have
people who immediately click down into “Last Name” since they think
they’re doing the right thing.
I guess most of us
are used to filling out forms where Last Name is an option, but keyfield is
not, so the comfort factor is greater to go to the obvious field that you know.
I know I’ve told the same people over and over again to use Keyfield, but
they persist in going to last or first name.
Should we start a
petition to make the other fields go away?
From: The Museum System
(TMS) Users [mailto:TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU]
On Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
4:23 PM
To: TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU
Subject: Re: Searching alternate
names
Right - only Keyfields will search the
alternate names.
Since Keyfields searches everything at
once, why do we need the other fields to do the same?
I personally wish the other fields could
go away, and I very actively discourage my users from searching with anything
other than Keyfields because you can't 100% predict how a name is entered, and
- why click in another field when you don't have to?
-----Original Message-----
From: The
Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU]On
Behalf Of Aylsworth, David
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
4:42 PM
To: TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU
Subject: Re: Searching alternate
names
Hi Jeri and Amber,
One of the things
that it does NOT do, though, is search the alternate names by the fields that
you enter information into. At least I can’t set it up to do it the
way that we think is logical.
For instance, I have
an alternate name broken out into First Name = Joe, Last Name = Blow (Of
course, his main constituent name is “Joseph Blowsalot”).
Everything works great when I use the Find Constituent to search “Keyfield
= Blow”. If I do that, I get the record for “Joseph Blowsalot”.
It falls apart,
though, if I use the Find Constituent and search by “Last Name =
Blow”. That will NOT return the record for “Joseph Blowsalot”,
even though I clearly have “Blow” in the alternate name Last Name
field.
I’m probably
not making much sense. I actually had Dimitry exasperated by the time I
got him to understand what I was trying to say, but it remains one of those
things that seems like it SHOULD work, but doesn’t. Not being a
programmer, it seems like a simple fix to have the FIND OBJECT search Alternate
Names by fields other than just Keyfields, but it probably isn’t..
David
David Aylsworth
Collections Registar
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
tel:
713-639-7824
fax: 713-639-7780
From: The Museum System
(TMS) Users [mailto:TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU]
On Behalf Of Moxley, Jeri
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
3:04 PM
To: TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU
Subject: Re: Searching alternate
names
When you use
'Keyfields' in the constituent lookup in Find Object, it searches across
constituent name fields (first name, last name, institution, nationality and so
forth) as well as all alternate names.
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:TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU]On
Behalf Of Morgan, Amber
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
3:58 PM
To: TMSUSERS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU
Subject: Searching alternate names
Does anyone have their db configured for
searching alternate names? In our set up, if you try searching an
alternate name from the objects module, or if you go into constituents and
search “last names,” it only searches the primary name, not the
alternate names. I tried playing around with the query groups, but when I
add “Alternate Names” into the Query Assistant, it adds another
“first name” and “last name” field – so someone
doing a search on a last name wouldn’t know for sure if they were
searching primary name or alternate name.
So, question 1: Can I change how
these fields appear in the Query Assistant? I thought for sure this could
be done, but I can’t figure out how to do it.
Question 2: What if I don’t want to separately search primary name
and alternate name? Is there a way to combine these two searches
easily? I can do it in Advanced Query, but I’m thinking of our
average users who are scared of Advanced Queries.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Amber
the warhol:
Amber E. Morgan
Associate Registrar
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
T 412.237.8306
F 412.237.8340
E [log in to unmask]
W www.warhol.org
The Andy Warhol
Museum
One of the four Carnegie
Museums of Pittsburgh
Email newsletter http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/email
Membership http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/SupportCMP