Hi Sue,
This is incredibly helpful!
Good point about the object status. I think we'll come up with an alternative to non-accessioned object.
Also, I confused "collection" with "department." It's structured weirdly in TMS. From the data entry side, it's called "department;" in DBConfig when you're setting user permissions, it's called "collection." Actually, just double checking this - when I create a new record, I'm prompted to enter the object's collection, but later I have the option to change the department. Not sure if that's a config thing on our side or what.
Anyway. I like your idea of creating a separate department for these types of objects. It makes a lot of sense because of the way permissions are structured. Pretty much everything starts from department/collection and trickles down from there. I think using a separate department for these will eliminate some of the other challenges I'm struggling with here. The biggest issue for me is making sure these don't accidentally end up on our collections audit lists, and the separate department will guarantee that won't happen.
Thanks so much for your response. I feel more confident about moving forward with this now.
Best regards,
Amber
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Garton, Susan
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 9:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cataloging objects from other collections
Hi Amber,
At the Smithsonian NPG, close to 90,000 of our 119,000 object records refer to objects at other museums-they're records for the NPG's Catalog of American Portraits (CAP). Here are some specifics about the way we enter them on TMS:
* We have a department called "CAP"
* We have an object status called "Catalog of American Portraits." We do not want to call them non-accessioned, because we have many non-accessioned objects that ARE owned by NPG, and both "Accessioned" and "Unaccessioned" objects on our database are considered "In jurisdiction".
* We do not track the location of these objects at all.
* We don't use the fields Object Type and Collection at NPG at all, so I can't help with that.
* For many other fields that we do use for NPG object records, we don't use them for CAP--especially the areas of Accessioning and Conservation.
* We do link Media, Bibliography and Exhibition records to CAP object records (but we use the Exhibitions module is for NPG exhibitions only.) Our CAP and Exhibitions records often change departments as these objects come and go from exhibitions at NPG. Will this ever happen with the objects you are thinking of entering? It's something to consider ahead of time, since people in various departments will have to share records.
* For Object Number, we use the owning institution's accession number, followed by an acronym for the institution if the accession number is duplicated on TMS (which it often is, sometimes 100s of times, since most museums use similar numbering systems.) If there is no accession number, we assign a CAP number according to a system devised decades ago.
Hope some of this is helpful. Good luck to you with the project.
Sue
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Morgan, Amber
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 1:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Cataloging objects from other collections
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone here ever creates TMS records for objects they don't own, but aren't loans either. Maybe there is a related painting to something in your collection that you really feel you need to track. Or maybe it's part of a complicated film cataloging project that involves one institution owning the intellectual copyright and another owning the physical media.
I'm trying to figure out the best way of using the available fields in TMS, particularly the more administrative/accession-oriented fields.
Collection: I'm thinking of using N/A, because this object isn't technically part of any of our collections, and I don't want to record another institution's collections in my database.
Object Status: "Non-Accessioned Object" might work. It's an existing choice in the dropdown list but maybe we need something more explicit? Does "Non-Accessioned Object" still sound like we have the object in our museum?
Object Type: None of our existing terms for that field make sense, so I think I'll need to create a new one, but I'm not sure what terminology is going to make sense here.
Location: This will be fairly easy I think. I can create an off-site location, put some notes in there about "DO NOT MOVE," that sort of thing. We aren't going to track the location of these objects other than to say they aren't in our building and they aren't our responsibility.
If anyone has entered these types of objects into TMS, and has recommendations, especially for the terminology, I would be grateful to hear from you.
Best regards,
Amber
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