Hi Will, In San Francisco we use the same system as St. Louis with one minor variation. We are called upon for various reasons to give out the number of things we have at least several times a year, so we think about this one a lot. We use the registrar's convention with a twist--if an object's parts must be displayed together, it's 2001.25.A-Z. Each part has its own record (for reasons Cathryn states below) and like St. Louis we use the overall record to record exhibition history, loans, etc.
It gets interesting when an object has parts that can be displayed separately, like a portfolio, so we use the group record 2001.25.1-26, but we count each object within the portfolio as a separate whole object, and the group record gets a "no" in the whole object field. Our logic is that each of the portfolio "parts" can be displayed separately and could even be loaned separately. Marla Misunas Manager, Collections Database Collections Information and Access San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 415 357 4186 voice 415 947 1186 fax http://www.sfmoma.org Board Member, Museum Computer Network http://www.mcn.edu -----Original Message----- From: Cathryn L. Goodwin [mailto:good...@slam.org] Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 7:19 AM To: mcn-l@mcn.edu Subject: Re: Part/Whole Relationships in Museum Collections Hi Will, Here in St. Louis we have historically created what we call a group record for the object as a whole using the accession number with full range of parts i.e., 25:1997.1-.15 for a portfolio of prints. This way one can pull the overall record for label copy etc. while still managing each part individually for location, conservation etc. Cathryn L. Goodwin Information Technologies The Saint Louis Art Museum 1 Fine Arts Drive St. Louis MO 63110 314.655.5349 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Real, Will" <re...@carnegiemuseums.org> To: <mcn-l@mcn.edu> Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 8:35 AM Subject: Part/Whole Relationships in Museum Collections > I am curious to see if there is any consensus in the museum community > regarding the cataloguing of objects with part/whole relationships. I > realize there are countless permutations of this situation, but the > prototypical example in our institution is a tea set. The tea set contains > various components--teapot, cups/saucers, sugar bowls--which themselves are > composed of parts--the sugar bowl lid and the bowl itself; the cup and its > saucer, the teapot and its stand, etc. > > We are about to implement a new collections management system (KE EMu) and > currently our strategy is as follows: > > 1. Catalogue the various components as individual items--the pot, the bowl, > the cups/saucers, all with unique numbers (2001.2.1, etc.). The components > would be linked to eachother in the database as Related Objects > 2. Catalogue the parts of a component in a Child relationship to that > component's record--the bowl and lid, the cup and saucer, etc., all > designated with letters (2001.2.1.A, etc.) > > We are not sure what to do about the ensemble of all the components--the tea > set as a whole. It currently does not have a catalogue number, but we can > imagine the usefulness of having a record for the set, in a Parent > relationship to each individual component. If we do this, we have to give > the set itself a unique number, or refer to it by the range of numbers it > includes (2001.2.1-10), or employ a totally new (for our institution) > cataloguing level, more like a scope note or folder-level record, as might > be typical in a catalogue of archival material, for example. > > Perhaps this is a query for the AAM Registrar's Committee listserv (is > anyone out there a member who would be willing to post it on my behalf?). > However, if any of you have some ideas on the matter we would be interested > to hear them. > > William Real > Director of Technology Initiatives > Carngie Museum of Art > 412-622-3267 > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: good...@slam.org > To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com > --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: mmisu...@sfmoma.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
