[BCMA] Museum Collection Management Systems

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Hello Julia,

The Maritime Museum of BC now uses Past Perfect which is a program that can help you manage artifact, archival, photo and library collections.  It can also be used to keep a record of membership although I am not familiar with that section of the program.  It is especially designed for the small museum and is very user friendly.  There is even a section for a small slide show to document the artifact visually.

Our (very) old system used prior to Past Perfect was Filemaker Pro which was much like Excel.  I am not as familiar with it.  Excel would certainly have limitations when cataloguing.  On Past Perfect there is one section per area so that each one is customized.  The archival and artifact section have different fields to fill in that are very specific.

It is also relatively inexpensive.  Someone in Ontario recently asked me my system preference and she got back and told me that about 80% of people who answered her email use Past Perfect.  Sounds like an ad but it's true.

Best of luck in your search,

Tatiana Robinson
Collections Registrar
Maritime Museum of BC<http://www.mmbc.bc.ca/>
28 Bastion Square
Victoria, BC V8W 1H9
T: 250.385.4222 ext. 107

[cid:image001.png at 01CBB0A7.37FFA940]



From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 10:54 AM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: [BCMA] Museum Collection Management Systems

Dear All,

I'd like to ask what Collection Management Systems you are using to document your collections.

At the museum at the Italian Cultural Centre we are currently using a combination of Access and Excel to document both our museum and archive material, but I hope to move to a purpose designed CMS at some point. We also have a library onsite so may ultimately be looking for a "cross domain" product which will enable us to manage our museum, library and archive material.

I'm not familiar with the Canadian/US market so any advice on systems you have used would be gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance.

Best wishes, Julia


Julia Murray MA
Curator

Il Museo
Italian Cultural Centre
3075 Slocan Street
Vancouver BC, V5M 3E4
curator at italianculturalcentre.ca<mailto:curator at italianculturalcentre.ca>


tel: 604 430 3337
fax: 604 430 3331

website: www.italianculturalcentre.ca<http://www.italianculturalcentre.ca>.

Opening Hours: Wed - Sat, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20110110/9f9bd73c/attachment.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 15739 bytes
Desc: image001.png
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20110110/9f9bd73c/attachment.png