[MCN-L] Reminder: THATCamp for Computational Archaeology registration deadline is TODAY
Today, June 10 is the final day to register for THATCamp CAA-NA, an unconference for computer applications in archaeology. The free event will be held Friday, August 10 in the Harrison-Small Special Collections Library of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. It is sponsored by the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology - North America chapter, the University of Virginia Library *Year of Metadata *and the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library. This is a great opportunity to interact with archaeologists, students, museum and library professionals, and computer and information scientists operating within cultural heritage! The general themes of the event are as follows: 1. Simulating the Past 2. Spatial Analysis 3. Data Modelling Sharing 4. Data Analysis, Management, Integration Visualisation 5. Geospatial Technologies 6. Field Lab Recording 7. Theoretical Approaches Context of Archaeological Computing 8. Human Computer Interaction, Multimedia, Museums More info: http://caana2012.thatcamp.org/ Follow us on twitter at @THATCampCAANA or for email inquiries, use thatcampcaana at gmail.com Ethan Gruber American Numismatic Society
[MCN-L] THATCamp for Computational Archaeology registration extended to June 10
Dear all, The registration deadline for THATCamp for Computational Archaeology has been extended to June 10. Registration is free and first-come, first serve. The THATCamp will be hosted August 10 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. It is co-sponsored by the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology - North America chapter and the U. Va. Libraries Year of Metadata/Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library. For more information, check out: http://caana2012.thatcamp.org/about-thatcampcaa-na/ This will be a great opportunity to meet new people and share ideas. You can follow us on twitter at @THATCampCAANA. Look forward to seeing you there! Ethan Gruber American Numismatic Society
[MCN-L] Announcing THATCamp - Computational Archaeology
The Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeologyhttp://caaconference.org/(CAA) North American chapter http://caa-na.net/ is pleased to announce THATCamp for computational archaeology http://caana2012.thatcamp.org/, co-sponsored by the University of Virginia Library. It will be held Friday, August 10, 2012 in the Harrison-Small Special Collections Library of U.Va., Charlottesville, Virginia. The application period for the event is now open and closes May 31. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by June 8. THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) CAA-NA is an unconference with the mission of facilitating communication and collaboration between students, scholars, professionals, and other interested individuals within archaeology and related disciplines. General themes (borrowed from CAA 2012, held in Southampton, UK) are as follows: - Simulating the Past - Spatial Analysis - Data Modelling Sharing - Data Analysis, Management, Integration Visualisation - Geospatial Technologies - Field Lab Recording - Theoretical Approaches Context of Archaeological Computing - Human Computer Interaction, Multimedia, Museums Please visit http://caana2012.thatcamp.org/ for more information. Inquiries can be made to thatcampcaana at gmail.com.
[MCN-L] American Numismatic Society Unveils MANTIS: A Major Numismatic Research Tool
American Numismatic Society Director Ute Wartenberg Kagan today unveiled the new interactive ANS collection search tool, MANTIS ( http://numismatics.org/search). MANTIS (MANTIS: A Numismatic Technologies Integration Service) provides access to all 600,000 records for objects in the ANS collection, through a series of new, easy-to-use search screens. The new search tool is an open source implementation of several applications and standards used in the Library, Archive, and Museum communities, including Apache Solr for faceted searching and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for representing numismatic metadata. The tool enables users to interact with the ANS collection through keyword searches or by browsing and sorting on numerous categorical and physical attributes common to numismatics. This search tool connects individual objects together by these searchable attributes, allowing users to seamlessly navigate from one object to its relations. ANS Director Wartenberg explains, ?The collections database is the work of a generation of expert cataloguers, and was originally designed to allow curatorial staff to manage the massive holdings of the Society. MANTIS marks a huge leap forward in making this work available to the general public in a way that is easy to understand for specialist and non-??specialist alike. Together with DONUM, our bibliographic search tool, the release of MANTIS places the ANS at the forefront of numismatic research on the World Wide Web.? The Database breaks down into 11 Departments, which can be searched as a whole or individually. Approximate totals for each department are as follows: - Greek 100, 000 - Roman 80,000 - Byzantine 15,000 - Islamic 60,000 - East Asian 45,000 - South Asian 50,000 - Medieval 50,000 - Modern 100,000 - United States 25,000 - Latin America 20,000 - Medals and Decorations 50,000 Traditional searches by mint person, date and numismatic categories are catered for, and supplemented with a new map interface. This latter feature, still under development, will eventually allow the user to find coins, medals and banknotes issues around the world by clicking on points on a map. ?The release of the new research tool is an exciting development, not just for the access it provides to our remarkable collection,? notes ANS Deputy Director Andrew Meadows. ?It also harnesses an ANS initiative to create stable identities for numismatic concepts on the World Wide Web through the nomisma.org project. This is most visible at the moment in the mapping functions that we offer, but will ultimately extend to the creation of other exciting new tools.? The design of MANTIS is the work of ANS Web Developer Ethan Gruber, working in close collaboration with ANS Research Scientist Sebastian Heath. Heath explains: ?The new ANS database is now positioned to become a tool for expressing all the links inherent in each individual coin. We can already see this in the powerful mapping function. Even at this early stage of development users can browse the Greek and Roman departments by geography, with an expanding set of North American mints also coming available. It's already possible to make maps of similar coins, such as those showing Greek and Roman deities, and this functionality will become available for more coins as Ethan Gruber continues his work. The database also supports a variety of export formats that will encourage exploration of the links between numismatics and other disciplines. Underlying much of our work is a technical approach called ?Linked Open Data?. As the humanities increasingly embrace digital tools, researchers of all stripes can be confident that the ANS is bringing exceptional resources into their domains.? INQUIRES TO: Dr. Andrew Meadows, Deputy Director meadows at numismatics.org - About the ANS The American Numismatic Society is an organization dedicated to the study of coins, currency, medals, tokens, and related objects from all cultures, past and present. The Society's headquarters in New York City has the foremost research collection and library specialized in numismatics in the United States. These resources are used to support research and education in numismatics, for the benefit of academic specialists, serious collectors, professional numismatists, and the interested public.
[MCN-L] Is anyone using Lucene to index and search collection data?
Hi Ryan, I'd recommend joining the code4lib community (http://code4lib.org/) and asking your question on their listserv as well. Ethan On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Ryan Hartman ryan.hartman at cartermuseum.org wrote: I'm currently writing a drupal module to get our collection online through our backend Kemu software. I haven't began research on searching the collection, but I would be interested to learn a bit more of the technical details behind how others are indexing their systems via solr/lucene. If it seems viable I may build a drupal module to go hand-in-hand with the other few I'm writing for our collection. The drupal community has a large apache solr following. -- Ryan Hartman Web Developer Amon Carter Museum 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ft. Worth, TX 76107 t: 817.989.5047 http://www.cartermuseum.org From: Charles Moad cmoad at imamuseum.org Reply-To: Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 10:51:12 -0500 To: Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Is anyone using Lucene to index and search collection data? Good timing. We (the Indianapolis Museum of Art) are soft launching our new website today. The live search (Apple-like real-time results), collection search and site search are all running on Solr, which is a web interface to Lucene. You can find more at this blog post including access details: http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2010/02/02/behind-the-scenes-with-imas -new-website/ - Charlie On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 4:58 PM, Tuck, Emily etuck at mfah.org wrote: Greetings: I am trying to identify institutions that are using Lucene to index and search a collection database. I'm thinking of advocating for it at the MFA Houston, but I wanted to find out who else is using it especially if you have a public facing website. Thank you for replying. Emily Nedell Tuck Data Standards Manager Museum of Fine Arts, Houston P.O. Box 6826 Houston, Texas 77265-6826 (713) 353-1523 etuck at mfah.org ___ 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/ imamuseum.org made the following annotations - FILM TALK | Planet Indy: The Ascent of the Electric Car | Filmmaker Chris Paine screens his 2006 Who Killed the Electric Car? then discusses the latest progress on electric vehicles | THU Feb 11 | Purchase Tickets - NOTICE: Tue Feb 02 2010 04:08:32 This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. - ___ 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/ ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Public Wi-Fi
That sounds like an idea with great potential, especially if you can make a mobile version of your museum website that has information about objects the patron is viewing. I don't have experience with managing wi-fi policies in particular, but it seems like a very good idea to have a terms of service that must be agreed to before allowing a connection. Ethan Gruber On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:58 PM, John Bedard jbedard at artsmia.org wrote: We are about to start installing wi-fi throughout out building and will be providing it free to visitors. I see that a lot of places like coffee shops that offer free wi-fi require a person to agree to terms of use before connecting. I would be interested in knowing whether or not you have a similar requirement for public use of your wi-fi. John R. Bedard | Director of Information Systems Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 612-870-3268 | JBedard at artsmia.org | www.artsmia.org ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Ask Slashdot: Archiving Digital Artwork For Museum Purchase?
There are certainly armies of programmers around the world grappling with this very issue of preserving born-digital material for eternity. In many ways, it is more complex than archiving physical objects. One can still read a 500 year old book, but in 500 years, it is unlikely there will be a way to view digital files we use now. Data has to constantly be migrated every 5-10 years into a new standard to remain relevant. Many libraries hire people to do this full-time. Sure, there's some conservation involved in maintaining books, manuscripts, clothing, etc., but we are producing digital data at an exponential rate, and costs multiply in maintaining the data. Digital curation is a futile effort, really. In any case, there is often talk at the Computer Applications in Archaeology conference on how to preserve 3D models and virtual environments. One option in the future will be Saving and Archiving Virtual Environments (SAVE), currently being developed at the University of Virginia. It is a few years off, but promising. Of course, someone will have to convert all the 3D studio max 10.0 files into 3D studio max 20.0 in ten years, and that will be even uglier than SGML-to-XML or Microsoft Acces-to-MySQL 5 conversions people are doing now. http://www.awn.com/news/events/when-rome-rebuild-city Ethan Gruber On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Amalyah Keshet akeshet at netvision.net.ilwrote: An anonymous reader writes /I am an artist working with 3d software to create animations and digital prints. For now my work just gets put on screening DVDs and BluRays and the original .mov and 3d files get backed up. But museums and big art collectors do want to purchase these animations. However as we all know archival DVDs are not really archival. So I want to ask the Slashdot readers, what can I give to the museum when they acquire my digital work for their collection so that it can last and be seen long after I am dead? No other artist or institution I know of have come up with any real solution to this issue yet, so I thought Slashdot readers may have an idea. These editions can be sold for a large amount of money, so it doesn't have to be a cheap solution./ http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/09/29/1646251/Archiving-Digital-Artwork-For-Museum-Purchase?from=rss ...just in case anyone out there is interested. ___ 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/
[MCN-L] EAD for artifacts: a new site
Hi all, Today, the Kittredge Numismatic Foundationhttp://www.kittredgecollection.orgwebsite goes live to the public: John Kittredge was well known as a generous and supportive member of the numismatic community, both in Worcester, Massachusetts and in New England. Much of his collection concentrates on Crowns and Talers from the 15th century onward. He also has a collection of U.S. coins, New England Numismatic Association (NENA) medals, tokens and other items. All told he had over 7,200 coins and other items that are now in the collection. Upon his death, John?s collection went to the Kittredge Numismatic Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to preserve John?s collection, to promote numismatics in the New England region, and to generally provide an educational and research source for the greatest community possible. The site is based on the best practices established for describing coins in EAD originally developed at the University of Virginia Library as part of the University of Virginia Art Museum Numismatic Collectionhttp://coins.lib.virginia.eduand published in the soon-to-be-printed proceedings for the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference held in Williamsburg, Virginia March 2009. The coding framework (cocoon/solr), originally developed for the UVA collection, has since been released publicly to sourceforge under the project name: Numisharehttp://sourceforge.net/projects/numishare/. While Numishare is not quite ready for its first official release, the code in the subversion trunk is more or less working and available to play around with (although I should note that the wiki for documentation is still being written!). The Kittredge Collection's backend allows for the creation and editing of data with XForms in the tomcat application, Orbeon. While the XForms editor has not yet been integrated into the trunk, it is available for testing in the kittredge branch of the subversion repository. In the coming weeks, I will finalize the XForms application for editing coin data and bring it into the trunk for in preparation for the official release of the Numishare application. The Kittredge Collection website is a work in progress. It will continue to grow in the coming months, with more images of coins and more categorical metadata being added to the collection. Nevertheless, the site is a demonstration of EAD's competency in describing artifacts in a robust and useful way. Future of the project: * Link images to all records * Provide high resolution images and integrate adore-djatoka JPEG-2000 viewer * Clean up data and normalize places and names * Integrate non-coin artifacts into the site. A VRA Core viewing stylesheet already exists. Since there is no accepted standard for using EAD to describe art objects, I have opted for VRA Core to describe them. -Ethan Gruber
[MCN-L] Djatoka client comments?
Hi Rob, I have used both. I prefer the viewer based on IIPMooViewer purely for aesthetic reasons. I like the thumbnail in the corner with the small box that shows one's zoomed position on the current layer and one's ability to navigate with that box. There's also the button to export whatever is in the viewer to a downloadable jpg, so that's potentially useful to patrons. Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:17 PM, Rob Lancefield on lists lists at lancefield.net wrote: Hi all, Any djatoka users out there? We're on the brink of deciding between two candidates as open-source AJAX client implementations for working with navigable images served with resolution on demand by djatoka server and a JPEG 2000 back-end. The two candidates are Djatoka OpenURL, based on OpenLayers, and Djatoka Viewer, based on IIPMooViewer. We have test pages up and running with both, and based on lots of search-engine-findable resources, both seem like good candidates based on functional needs and general factors; so I thought I'd ask here if anyone has actually been using either or both. Any hands-on tales of use cases or applications in museum contexts that might suggest one of these tools would be preferable to the other? thanks, Rob -- Rob Lancefield (rlancefield [at] wesleyan [dot] edu) Manager of Museum Information Services / Registrar of Collections Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University 301 High Street, Middletown CT 06459-0487 USA 860.685.2965 // President, Museum Computer Network (MCN), http://www.mcn.edu The membership organization for museum information professionals ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Microsoft ordered to stop selling Word
Now if only a judge could order Microsoft from distributing Internet Explorer, the world would be a better place! On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Amalyah Keshet [akeshet at imj.org.il] akeshet at imj.org.il wrote: In case you were dozing off in front of your word processing program, here's a little kick in the head: A Judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word document creation application in the United States in 60 days, after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party. http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterpriseapps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219200383 ... Amalyah Keshet ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Viewing digital architectural drawings
Hi Cindy, There are a lot of options for providing access to images online, and since I'm not familiar with your software environment, I can't answer on that issue, but on the issue of zooming on images, I can make a recommendation. In the last year or so, some developers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have done some great work to develop an apache tomcat JPEG-2000 module. It's free and open source, and a number of institutions have begun using in a production environment. I'm integrating it into a digital coins project. http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/djatoka/index.php?title=Main_Page Here's a demo: http://african.lanl.gov/adore-djatoka/ Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Cindy Mackey cmackey at currier.org wrote: We are thinking about putting digital images of architectural drawings that we have in our collection, online and I was wondering what would be the best program to use. We are already using Ektron to manage our website and have the capability to incorporate flash. Ideally we would like to have the ability to zoom and rotate the images. Examples of other websites that have a similar feature would be great to know about too. Thanks! Cindy Mackey Assistant Registrar Currier Museum of Art 150 Ash Street Manchester, NH 03104 Tel: (603)669-6144 x 137 Fax: (603)669-7194 www.currier.org ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Viewing digital architectural drawings
Melita, That's odd. It's all javascript and requires no additional plugins or viewers. Is javascript enabled in your browser? I would think the script is cross-browser capable. Are you using IE? It works fine for me in Firefox and Opera. Ethan On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 3:08 PM, Melita.V.Podesta at bos.frb.org wrote: HI Ethan, By clicking onto the demo link the page with all the different pictures of the illuminated book came up - but clicking onto an individual image brings up nothing. Is there a viewer that you have to download first even for the demo? Thanks, Melita V. Podesta Project Coordinator New England Economic Adventure at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston 600 Atlantic Avenue, T-10 Boston, MA 02210 Tel: 617-973-3197Fax: 617-973-3511 Ethan Gruber ewg4xuva at gmail.com Sent by: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu 07/31/2009 02:51 PM Please respond to Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu To Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu cc Subject Re: [MCN-L] Viewing digital architectural drawings Hi Cindy, There are a lot of options for providing access to images online, and since I'm not familiar with your software environment, I can't answer on that issue, but on the issue of zooming on images, I can make a recommendation. In the last year or so, some developers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have done some great work to develop an apache tomcat JPEG-2000 module. It's free and open source, and a number of institutions have begun using in a production environment. I'm integrating it into a digital coins project. http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/djatoka/index.php?title=Main_Page Here's a demo: http://african.lanl.gov/adore-djatoka/ Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Cindy Mackey cmackey at currier.org wrote: We are thinking about putting digital images of architectural drawings that we have in our collection, online and I was wondering what would be the best program to use. We are already using Ektron to manage our website and have the capability to incorporate flash. Ideally we would like to have the ability to zoom and rotate the images. Examples of other websites that have a similar feature would be great to know about too. Thanks! Cindy Mackey Assistant Registrar Currier Museum of Art 150 Ash Street Manchester, NH 03104 Tel: (603)669-6144 x 137 Fax: (603)669-7194 www.currier.org ___ 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/ ___ 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/ ___ 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/
[MCN-L] (no subject)
Hi Peter, The digitization unit of the University of Virginia special collections library uses Microsoft Expression Media, formerly known as iView, to manage their images. You can record metadata about each item. The great thing about this software is you can export to iView's proprietary XML exchange format, which, in turn, allows you to transform it into VRA Core/CDWA/whatever with an XSLT stylesheet or just use XSLT to re-arrange the data in such a way that allows it to be ingested into a database. You can also do batch renaming and batch export of deliverables with the software, but sometimes that's actually faster/easier to do with a simple shell script if you are using Mac OS or Linux. If you are interested in learning more about the software is used by the department, I can refer you to their production manager who can answer any questions you may have better than I can. Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Johnson, Peter pjohnson at skirball.orgwrote: Colleagues, Within the next few months, we hope to be able to select photo-management software from one of several vendors we are considering. Three of our major criteria wishes for this software are a) the ability to add metadata in batches, b) batch conversion of file formats and c) the possibility of converting file names in batches, perhaps even upon ingest (which, I realize, may be a long shot if not impossible). If you have experience with batch addition of metadata, batch conversion of file formats, and/or conversion of photo file names either at the time of or following ingest into a new in-house system (not hosted by the vendor), I would appreciate hearing from you. I am particularly interested in what worked and what didn't -- and why. What didn't you think of that you wish you had? What did you think of ahead of time that saved you headaches down the road? At the risk of offending vendors on this list (which is not my intent) are there vendors that you recommend highly regarding any of the above-mentioned criteria? Please reply privately to pjohnson at skirball.org Many thanks for your time and your willingness to share your expertise. -- Peter Peter Johnson Project Manager for Records, Documents Images Skirball Cultural Center 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049 310-440-4707 pjohnson at skirball.org ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Seeking advice on creating a storage inventory database
Hi Peter, What information are you interested in recording about the documents and their organization and what is the general level of computer proficiency within your organization? Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Johnson, Peter pjohnson at skirball.orgwrote: Colleagues, I too, come looking for guidance. We are a small museum and cultural center, and we find ourselves in need of a system to inventory and track paper documents - created by the various departments. Each department creates documents specific to its purpose, and has its own filing terminology, although in this area there is a great deal of overlap. The overall goal for the inventory structure is the same: place documents in labeled folders, put the folders in boxes, label the boxes, add the boxes to the inventory, and store the boxes either on- or off-site. The goal is to create an inventory system that will be simple enough for the departments to use on their own, as we will not be adding staff to do the work for them. We are strongly considering using Access for this inventory database. If you have worked with, or created, such a tracking system, I would be interested in hearing from you, especially regarding what worked well, what didn't work, pitfalls to avoid, etc. I also would be interested in hearing about retention policies you created or worked with regarding storing similar non-digital material. If you have advice or documents that you are willing to share, please reply to me privately in order to avoid cluttering up the list. Many thanks for your time. Peter Peter Johnson Project Manager for Records, Documents Images Skirball Cultural Center 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049 310-440-4707 pjohnson at skirball.org ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Cataloging culture/nationality for archaeological and anthropoligical artifacts
I have used Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to describe numismatic collections and will be discussing the prospect of applying EAD to other artistic objects at the University of Virginia Art Museum. VRA Core is one of the accepted XML standards for dealing with artistic artifacts, but Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) is also out there. I have a paper in the upcoming Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) proceedings about EAD for numismatic collections (and broadly art museum collections). For other approaches to dealing with cultural heritage and archaeological data, you should check out CAA proceedings for the last several years. CAA is *the *conference for computer archaeology, and various groups have put a lot of thought into the management of cultural heritage information. The PDF containing the abstracts from CAA 2009 is at http://caa2009.org/CAA2009_CompletePrelimProgram030409.pdf . There are a few papers relevant to this issue coming out in the proceedings. As for a collections management *database,* all I can say is that most organizations approach the data management of this sort of complex information in XML schemas. Databases are too rigid to adequately describe archaeological and artifactual data. Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Art Museum On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:09 PM, talita de castro miranda talita_castro at yahoo.com.br wrote: hei, Cheryl do you know Afridoc? See at: http://icom.museum/http://caa2009.org/Images/Download.gifafridoc/index.htmlhttp://icom.museum/afridoc/index.html I think it's a very usefull guideline for catologuing archaeological and anthropological artifacts. talita miranda museu de folclore edison carneiro. rio de janeiro/ brasil email: talita_castro at yahoo.com.br --- Em qua, 3/6/09, Cheryl Klimaszewski cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu escreveu: De: Cheryl Klimaszewski cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu Assunto: [MCN-L] Cataloging culture/nationality for archaeological and anthropoligical artifacts Para: mcn-l at mcn.edu Data: Quarta-feira, 3 de Junho de 2009, 17:05 I'm writing from the Bryn Mawr College Art and Artifacts Collection, where we have recently completed our initial migration of data from a disparate collection of Access databases to a formal collections management database. Ours is a diverse study collection that includes archaeological and anthropological artifacts as well as fine arts objects. We're wondering how other collections are dealing with cataloging culture and nationality information for objects that have cultural groups as makers as opposed to individual, known makers (also, where the cultural group may or may not always correspond to the same geographical region). Our concerns mainly center around objects of African and Native American origin. Though we're most specifically interested in how this data is stored in the cataloging system (i.e. Is the culture/nationality of the object entered into a designated culture/nationality field? Is an artist/creator record created for the entire cultural group? etc.), any general comments on cataloging anthropological and archaeological collections are also welcome. If anyone has a perspective on this that they would like to share, even if it's of the Oh my god, whatever you do, just don't do it this way variety, we'd certainly appreciate it. Good wishes, Cheryl -- Cheryl Klimaszewski Collections Information Manager Bryn Mawr College 101 North Merion Avenue Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 office 610-526-5093 cklimaszew at brynmawr.edu ___ 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/ Veja quais s?o os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com ___ 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/
[MCN-L] Encoded Archival Description in museums
may be thinking about our standards landscape to narrowly. Rather than thinking about standards which emanated out of one specific community as only being applicable to that particular setting, we should think of it as applying to a specific material type, which can occur whether you're in a library, archive or museum. At the end of the day, I think it all boils down to this question: which other materials do you think you're materials should be able to integrate with? If you think it's books, then use a bibliographic standards. If you think it's cultural objects, then use a standard appropriate for that. If you think it's bulk materials, then use an archival standard. For a typical museum collection with a focus on individual objects, I wouldn't advocate the use of EAD as a general solution. MOAC used EAD XML for two primary reasons: 1. because there was no XML schema for cultural objects at that point in time, and 2. because the resource MOAC was contributing to (the Online Archive of California) only accepted EAD XML. It was a pragmatic decision based on specific circumstances, but now that we have data exchange standards like CDWA Lite XML, that's most likely the more appropriate choice for cultural materials described at an item-level. I would also say that for certain types of collections, museums may benefit from a collection-level strategy just to get information about the availability of materials out there. The natural history community, for example, created Natural Collections Descriptions (NCD) for that precise purpose (see http://wiki.tdwg.org/NCD/). Cheers, G?nter -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Hamma Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 5:55 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Encoded Archival Description in museums G?nter, Recalling a talk by you at IMLS in DC a couple of years ago, this might be a time to talk a bit about cataloging for bibliographic, unique works and heaps of unique works. And the use of the right tool for the right material regardless of the museum - archive - library designation? ken Kenneth Hamma +1 310 270 8008 khamma at me.com 368 Patel Place Palm Springs CA 92264 On May 14, 2009, at 10:26 AM, Waibel,Guenter wrote: EAD indeed is rarely used to describe museum collections, but it is used frequently in museum archives. The only project I am aware of that used EAD to describe museum object collections was Museums and the Online Archive of California (MOAC). You'll find a lot of documents related to this project at http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/moac/classic/ , and a D-Lib article at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/rinehart/01rinehart.html . Cheers, G?nter Waibel OCLC Research voice: +1-650-287-2144 G?nter blogs at ... http://www.hangingtogether.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Ethan Gruber Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:05 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Encoded Archival Description in museums Hi, I'm a developer in a library that deals with a lot of special collections objects. I've dealt with traditional museum-type objects, such as ancient coins and the challenges in providing access to them online. I used Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to describe them quite robustly in XML. This is a fairly standard schema in libraries, and I was wondering to what extent EAD is used by museums to describe their own collections. I have presented at two conferences in the last year (Archiving 2008 and Computer Applications in Archaeology in 2009) regarding EAD for numismatics, and I have received a number of comments that suggest EAD is rarely used in that capacity by museums, especially European ones. If anyone on this list can offer their insights into EAD in museums, I would appreciate it. For further reference, the project website is: http://coins.lib.virginia.edu/ and the documentation section has a draft of best practices guidelines and the powerpoint presentation I recently gave. Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library ___ 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/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu
[MCN-L] Encoded Archival Description in museums
Hi, I'm a developer in a library that deals with a lot of special collections objects. I've dealt with traditional museum-type objects, such as ancient coins and the challenges in providing access to them online. I used Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to describe them quite robustly in XML. This is a fairly standard schema in libraries, and I was wondering to what extent EAD is used by museums to describe their own collections. I have presented at two conferences in the last year (Archiving 2008 and Computer Applications in Archaeology in 2009) regarding EAD for numismatics, and I have received a number of comments that suggest EAD is rarely used in that capacity by museums, especially European ones. If anyone on this list can offer their insights into EAD in museums, I would appreciate it. For further reference, the project website is: http://coins.lib.virginia.edu/ and the documentation section has a draft of best practices guidelines and the powerpoint presentation I recently gave. Ethan Gruber University of Virginia Library
