David—
We have many users with access to many TMS
fields, so we’ve had a Style Guide since we started using TMS. We
rely on the curatorial staff to enter their own cataloging information for
instance, so the guide primarily addresses cataloging.
We don’t have a written guide for
other fields like valuations, etc., but I write all of our how-to manuals
incorporating data entry style guidelines in them. It sounds like a pain
to write all this documentation, but it’s incredibly valuable to be able
to send a pdf to someone who has forgotten how to do their job (“I
noticed you’ve been entering information as X instead of x, please see
the attached guide”). This is my version of Jeri’s smack on
the back of the hand with a pencil (though I imagine the pencil is more
effective...thwack!...awesome).
Most of these manuals were written to
address procedural changes, but in some cases there were guides floating around
that I was able to incorporate and standardize to save myself some time. The
Style Guide was created before my time, and by a committee that did a lot of
arguing, but it was worth the time and… um...“collegial discussion”:
it’s stood with only minor changes for years. I would highly recommend
having a guide and emphasizing that standards lead to better search results.
--Jessica
______________________
Jessica Milby
TMS Systems Manager
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Phone: 215-684-7283
Fax: 215-235-0035
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From:
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 4:11
PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Data Standards Manual
Here’s
a two part (sorta) question for you all. How many of you have some sort
of data standards style manual that you use to control the types of data
entered in each field, and the style it is entered in? What I am thinking
of is something that would be institution specific that is based on the Gallery
Systems manual, but specific to your own style and methods.
I’m thinking both about points like “when do you use ‘Object
Name’ or ‘Title’ fields?” as well as “do you
capitalize more than the first letter of the medium field?”.
For
those of you who do have such a manual, would you be willing or able to share
it with me?
Over
time, we’ve made periodic attempts to make something like this, assigning
a “chapter” on “Valuation and Insurance” to one registrar;
“Medium” to another. The goal has always been to compile
these individual chapters into one huge bible for every field that we use in
TMS, and how we specifically use it here at MFAHouston. We’re
gradually opening the system up to a wider circle of users who will be doing
their own data entry, so the need seems to be even greater to have a
consistent, institutional approach to every detail, but maybe I’m being
overly dramatic and foreseeing chaos and the end of the world as I know it if
we don’t have such a document before we do this.
I
know data standards are a rallying point for a lot of TMS Administrators…
But I don’t know how you all have individually addressed the issue.
Can you let me know?
Thanks,
David
David
Aylsworth
Collections
Registar
tel:
713-639-7824
fax:
713-639-7780