Re: CMS
The one thing to keep in mind when choosing a CMS (or for that matter whether you actually need one) is whether you want to manage the content for your site or manage the content on your site The difference is subtle but important. The first thing you should decide is whether you even need a CMS. How many pages on your site need changing on a regular basis? If 95% of your pages are static (i.e. never change) then you do not need a CMS to control the content on the site - but you may need one to control the content of your site. A CMS is great when you have a large number of people all contributing to the content of the site, but if everything goes through your web department before it goes live - what are you using a CMS for? If you need to integrate (as you stated in your message) disparate systems and databases - a CMS may not be the best solution. In my opinion any vendor of a CMS that comes in a tells you that their system can solve all your content integration problems - doesn't know your problems. A CMS can be costly and so complicated that no one wants to use it. When it comes down to it, many times hiring someone with knowledge of the web will save you headaches and money. A person who knows how to program and can find their way around web technologies will be able to show you far easier ways to control and integrate content than a prepackaged CMS will ever do for you at this time. Andrew Macdonald New Media Officer / Agent des nouveaux médias Canada Aviation Museum / Musée de l'aviation du Canada Phone / Téléphone : (613) 998-5689 Fax / Télécopie : (613) 990-3655 Website: www.aviation.technomuses.ca Email: amacdon...@technomuses.ca Will Scott william_sc...@fitnyc.edu 05/26/2005 04:50 PM Please respond to mcn-l@mcn.edu To mcn-l@mcn.edu cc Subject CMS Does anyone on the list have expertise in this area of content management systems for the distribution of museum collections information, or has anyone contracted a CMS vendor for major, long-term museum Web- or intranet-access projects? I would be interested to know more about your experiences and about how you are using the CMS, especially for integration of various museum databases. If replying off-line, please send messages to willscottconsult...@yahoo.com. Many thanks in advance, Will Will Scott Museum Database Freelancer Assistant Registrar, The Museum at FIT willscottconsult...@yahoo.com (917)753-1274 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: amacdon...@technomuses.ca To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-113561...@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
Re: CMS
At 10:24 27/05/05 -0400, Andrew Macdonald wrote: A CMS can be costly and so complicated that no one wants to use it. When it comes down to it, many times hiring someone with knowledge of the web will save you headaches and money. There's a lot of truth in that. A CMS really comes into its own when you want it do more than run one website. The one we used on the TAMH project - managed the website, a local touchscreen application and a CD-ROM for school use. It also output images and generated whatever flavour of XML had to go with them at the time for other projects' use. There are some papers on it at http://www.tamh.org/tamh/papers/index.php (they are rather out of date as we've spent more time in recent years implementing the strategy than talking about it) Would never have occurred to me (having no money) to go out and buy an off-the-shelf solution. Ours was built in-house over time and versions of it work with museum sites and commercial applications such as a holiday booking system and a real estate database where vendors add and edit their own property details. The level of difficulty in implementing something like this depends largely on where you start. It's a lot easier if you begin with an existing database (even one in a horrible proprietary Collections Management System) which you can export elsewhere and re-fit with link tables, SQL and scripting. Everything we have done in this area has been built around LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) which has the great attraction of being free. The Clearances site www.theclearances.org is built on a CMS which manages everything including things like passenger list output in XML and proprietary formats. We have also developed an exhibition tool, a CMS which sits on top of a CMS allowing quick generation of temporary exhibitions combining existing assets with whatever new material curators wish to add. This may never see the light of day as a commercial product but it certainly proves the ease with which different databases and media types can be combined and managed. Douglas The Highland Clearances http://www.theclearances.org --- 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
Re: CMS
Those considering CMS applications might find the following interesting: Jeffrey Veen, Making A Better CMS, November 15, 2004 http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000365.php and Why Content Management Fails, April 1, 2004 http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000315.php which reminds me of http://OpenSourceCMS.com a cool site where you can try out installations of free and open source CMS software. jt -- __ J. Trantjtr...@archimuse.com Partner Principal Consultant phone: +1 416 691 2516 Archives Museum Informatics fax: +1 416 352 6025 158 Lee Ave, Toronto Ontario M4E 2P3 Canada http://www.archimuse.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
Re: CMS
Those considering CMS applications might find the following interesting: and might also be interested in http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ which lets you compare and contrast the feature sets of about 350 different commercial and open-source CMSs. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 bwy...@denverartmuseum.org --- 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
Re: Exhibition management on coll mgt systems
Title: Message If at all possible I would ask that responses to this question be posted to the list -- I'm interested in this topic as well and I don't think Marla should get to corner the market. ___ Chuck Patch Director of Systems The Historic New Orleans Collection (504)523-4662 http://www.hnoc.org -Original Message-From: Misunas, Marla [mailto:mmisu...@sfmoma.org] Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 5:57 PMTo: mcn_mc...@listserver.americaneagle.comSubject: Exhibition management on coll mgt systems Hello all, At SFMOMA we're working on a collection management system needs analysis. Managing exhibitions is one of the most complicated functions we perform with our system. Currently we use our system to create exhibition, venue, loan, shipping, and crate records. Registrars manage individual works coming from multiple lenders and going to different venues in different shipments, sometimes with parts of the same object in several crates, or with multiple objects in one crate. They use the system to assemble the objects, manage the tour, and disperse the exhibition. They create packing and installation instructions, condition report books, checklists, crate lists, lists for shippers, pro forma invoices, and a whole lot more. We're interested in hearing from colleagues who are actively using their collection management systems to manage in-house or touring exhibitions (we use ours for a heavy schedule of both). If you are currently using your cms to manage exhibitions, would you be willing to share your thoughts with me on- or offlist? Are there aspects of your system you especially like or would like to change? Are there aspects of exhibition management your system doesn't support? If your system does it all at the touch of a button, we'd like to know that too. Thanks for your help, Marla Misunas Collections Information Manager Collections Information and Access San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (415) 357- 4186 (voice) Check out SFMOMA Collections Online at www.sfmoma.org _ Vice President/President Elect, Museum Computer Network Conference Co-Chair, Boston 2005 http://www.mcn.edu --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: chu...@hnoc.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com The information contained in this electronic mail message (including any attachments) is confidential information that may be covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC Sections 2510-2521, intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above, and may be privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify me and delete the original message. Thank you. --- 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
Re: Exhibition management on coll mgt systems
Hi Marla (and all interested list members), At the Glenbow Museum we use STAR/Museums developed by Cuadra Associates Inc. The Exhibits Management Module in the application includes tasks that allow for the creation and description of an exhibit record (in-house or traveling), the selection and linking of artifacts to the exhibit record, the creation of label and catalog copy for exhibit artifacts, and gallery layout (location of artifacts while on exhibit). Global update functions reserve artifacts, allow for exclusions, update locations of artifacts when exhibits are opened, and return artifacts to a predetermined location when the exhibit is closed. As well, the app has a Crates module and a Shipping module that integrates with the exhibit module. The Exhibit Management Module was one of the first modules that we integrated into our work processes at Glenbow. Since STAR is a development platform I have been able to make changes to input forms, reports, etc. that didn't quite fit the bill for the way we work here. I started with small changes, for example, a field to capture the names of staff on the exhibit team (the exhibit record only had a place for the coordinator or project leader). I continued by making reports that met the needs of our staff and have even modified the global updates to populate additional fields with relevant exhibit info. One element that the exhibit module doesn't currently handle is the ability to make an exhibit both in-house and traveling. Most of our traveling shows start as an in-house exhibit. That's a future project for me to work on. One of the advantages of a Collections Management System that is a development platform is that you can modify the way the product looks / works. A challenge (one that Glenbow has committed to) is that you need a full time database administrator, money and time for training. There have been very clear benefits to the institution since we started using the Exhibit Module in STAR. In addition to having detailed records about an exhibit for reference purposes, we now have a more streamlined, efficient exhibit process. In the past, Curators created artifact lists in a Word document. These documents were distributed to all parties that required a copy (conservators, installation techs, designers). Often when the curators removed artifacts from their list, updated copies were not forwarded. Mount makers, matters, framers, and conservators spent significant amounts of time working with artifacts that had been pulled from the exhibit. With the linking of artifacts to exhibit records and the ability to exclude artifacts with the click of a button, updated artifact lists can be pulled from the system on a regular basis. Label copy can be created directly in STAR, a report of the copy can be generated, e-mailed from the Window's Client application to a 2-D designer, and imported by them into Design software for enhancing. With each new exhibit we manage using STAR we realize new areas of efficiencies, and discover other staff who would benefit from access to the system. Let me know if you have other questions, would like more details, etc. Cathy Cathy Herr Computer Support Specialist, Collections Glenbow Museum ch...@glenbow.org --- 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
Fwd: Fw: Internship - New York Yacht Club Library
Title: Fwd: Fw: Internship - New York Yacht Club Library Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 12:33:32 -0500 Reply-To: Visual Resources Association vr...@listserv.uark.edu Sender: Visual Resources Association vr...@listserv.uark.edu From: Elizabeth Schaub esch...@uts.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Fw: Internship - New York Yacht Club Library Comments: To: arli...@lsv.uky.edu To: vr...@listserv.uark.edu X-ELNK-AV: 0 Please excuse cross posting. - Original Message - The New York Yacht Club Library, located in New York City, has an internship position available from July to August, 2005. The minimum required time committment is 20 hours per week. A stipend will be offered, the amount depending upon experience and hours of service. The library, which includes material that entered the collection at or near the founding of the club in 1844, is the finest and most extensive privately held gathering in the United States, of books, manuscripts and photographica relating to yachting and maritime history. The entire collection comprises more than 14,000 volumes, and the rare book collection numbers some 2,000 volumes. The archives contain the original America's Cup papers, from 1851 to 1987, and the extensive photograph collection dates from the late 19th-century to mid-20th-century. Projects that an itern would be asked to assist with include cataloguing, preservation, research, exhibit planning, and digitization intiatives. This is an excellent opportunity for someone interested in archives and special collections. Knowledge of sailing is not a requirement. Interested applicants should submit a resume and cover letter to the Librarian at: libr...@nyyc.org. Thank you. The New York Yacht Club Library 37 West 44th St. New York, NY 10036 www.nyyc.org -- Diane M. Zorich 113 Gallup Road Princeton, NJ 08542 USA Voice: 609-252-1606 Fax: 609-252-1607 Email: dzor...@mindspring.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
