Amber, A resource worth looking at is Annamaria Poma Swank's report on collections management systems at http://documenti.rinascimento-digitale.info/Collection_Management_System s
I have looked through it and it appears to address some of the issues you are grappling with. The overall gist, if I understood correctly, is that museums have come to use collections management systems more broadly, as a foundation for providing content to end users. Will Real Carnegie Museum of Art -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Morgan, Amber Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 10:41 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] What is a Collections Management System supposed to manage? We are addressing some concerns regarding our collections management system. Something that has become clear is that our staff is not in agreement as to what a CMS is and what it should do. We are attempting to address the needs of our education department. It would be very helpful to know how other institutions maintain what could be considered educational content. If anyone out there would be willing to answer a few questions, I would be very grateful! Do you store label copy in your CMS? Do you use your CMS to manage detailed information about artists, events, places, etc? If so, do you limit it to information specifically about your collection, or do you also maintain information about related materials held elsewhere? Does your institution collect any user-generated content, and if so, does it go into your CMS? And finally, if you're feeling up to it - what, in your opinion, is a collections management system; what should it do and what should it NOT be expected to do? Many thanks, Amber the warhol: Amber E. Morgan Associate Registrar 117 Sandusky Street Pittsburgh, PA 15212 T 412.237.8306 F 412.237.8340 E morgana at warhol.org 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 _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
