External Email - Exercise Caution
Hi Fatima,
We also did a review and partial-overhaul of our classifications. Our current iteration is similar to Jeremy’s where we tried to make sure that the end-user was kept in mind to better facilitate queries through
eMuseum. Our classifications had not been reviewed for several decades, and there were only like ten or so. It has broadened significantly, but is due for another round of review to address identified gaps from re-classifying. One important aspect we utilized
were sub-classifications which were selectively decided upon for more complex areas of the collection. One critical aspect that I made sure we built into reclassifying was establishing and maintaining a definitions document for each classification to provide
guidance for future cataloguing. Again, still a work in progress (but will we every truly be done?!), but enjoy!
(not assigned)
Architectural Elements
Archival Material
Arms and Armor
Artist Installations
Artists’ Materials
Books
Canework
Ceramics
Collages / Assemblages
Costumes and Accessories
Amulets & Talismans
Jewelry
Decorative Arts (phasing out with the more specific classifications but currently still in use)
Digital Art
Display Materials
Bases / Pedastels
Documents
Drawings
Fakes & Forgeries
Frames
Furniture
Glass
Ivories
Jades
Jewelry (still phasing out, folded in as a sub-class for Costumes and accessories)
Lacquerware
Manuscripts
Maps, charts and plans
Metalwork
Bronzes
Coins
Enamels
Medals and Plaquettes
Pewterware
Silverware
Mosaics
Musical Instruments
Non-Western Miniatures (actively renaming)
Paintings
Pastels
Photographs
Portrait Miniatures
Prints
Reproductions
Sculpture
Silhouettes
Textiles
Time-based Media
Utilitarian Objects
Watercolors
Woodwork
Best,
Sarah Gillis, Associate Registrar, Collection Documentation
WORCESTER ART MUSEUM / worcesterart.org
fifty-five salisbury street / worcester, massachusetts 01609
direct 508.793.4427 / general 508.799.4406
Jewels of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Treasures
June 18, 2022 through January 29, 2023
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Munro, Jeremy T.
Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2022 9:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sharing your Classifications value list?
Howdy,
We redid ours a couple years ago, I’m partial towards classifications being primarily a query aid rather than oriented towards specific departments or sections of a museum. For
example a pretty classic request I use in TMS training to explain querying is “Imagine someone asks you ‘how many On View paintings are there?”
Architectural Element
Book and Manuscript
Ceramics
Decorative Arts
Drawing and Collage
Figure
Installation
Jewelry
Mask
Painting
Photograph
Print
Sculpture
Textile and Fiber Arts
Time Based Media
By FAR our most imprecise one is Sculpture – which essentially contains all 3D objects that did not have big enough sets to warrant their own classification (for example the
museum has enough Ceramics and we get enough requests for lists, etc, that it was worth breaking it out from Sculpture or Dec Arts. Same with Jewelry.
Jeremy Munro (he/him/his)
Digital Project Manager / Database Administrator
T 202.633.4784
950 Independence Avenue SW
MRC 708 PO Box 37012
Washington DC 20560
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Exhibitions now on
Online
Backtalk:
Artists on Native, African, and African American Stereotypes
In D.C.
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Mahdi, Fatima
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2022 3:14 PM
To: ListServ tmsusers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sharing your Classifications value list?
External Email - Exercise Caution
Hello, TMSers!
We are reviewing our "Classification" field list. Would anyone be willing to share their classifications? Has anyone had any issue in searching on or reporting on sub-classifications?
Thank!
Fatima
--
Fatima Mahdi
Collections Information Specialist/TMS
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220-4007
Tel. 804.340.1443
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Teleworking Tuesdays & Fridays
I acknowledge that I live and work on the ancestral homelands of the Chickahominy, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, and Upper Mattaponi tribes of central Virginia. I offer my deepest respect for their resilience and
continued stewardship of their culture.
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