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Automated Data Systems for Museums The Forgotten Applications:
Citations, Object Usage, Robert Baron Home Page | Museum Management: Papers | Guides Notes:
[1] Note added 3/2002: This paper, written in 1994-95 shows the interlinking data structures involving distinct museum database applications. It demonstrates how certain administrative functions, such as Rights and Reproductions can be integrated to help create a citation system, useful for scholarly reference, satisfying user inquiries, and forming a database for public relations. In terms of the data structures presented here, one may view this author’s SWAP project (http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/SWAP.htm) as a direct predecessor and his work on the Academic Image Cooperative (see http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/index07.htm in general, and http://www.studiolo.org/academicimage/datamodel/Datamodelmenu.htm in particular, as a continuation.
The issues and systems presented in this paper are not intended as specific instructions to be followed when designing applications; rather, they are intended to bring forward some of the issues that might have to be addressed and some of the many possible solutions that should be considered. [return to text] [2] On the museum store, see below, footnote number 18. [return to text] [3] In a recent survey of staff preferences in a medium sized fine arts museum, staff indicated that they consider bibliographic and citation materials important. Nearly half of the respondents (11) indicated that they need to have bibliography and citations linked to object groups and to other types of collection aggregates. Five of eight members of the curatorial department indicated that they Use this information; and one signaled that he Wants this kind of utility.
Over half of those taking the survey (14) indicated that they value having a history of bibliography and citations on objects. Among the eight curatorial department members taking the survey, seven responded, six indicated they use this kind of material, three note that they create this data, only one mentioned that he sends it. This low number is not indicative, since responding to public queries for information is a specific curatorial responsibility. It probably indicates that it is difficult to compile bibliography into a form appropriate to send. Two of the seven responding noted that they want this feature (meaning that they do not believe it is currently available). [return to text] [4] Leopoldine Prosperetti, Registrar at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD, developed a combination of manual and automated procedures for integrating the administration of Rights and Reproductions with a citation index. Some of the concepts expressed in this article are rooted in the procedures she devised. [return to text] [5] In one museum we discovered an old log kept by the registrar that recorded photo orders from the early decades of the 1900s. In it were records of well known art historians ordering photographs for study purposes. A typical search for bibliographical data would never reveal this kind of information; but, if all orders for photographs were to be added to the citation file, a remarkably different and potentially revealing product might result. [return to text] [6] Not all “Future Citations” derive from the activities of the Rights and Reproductions department. Curators may be in communication with scholars who plan to cite a museum work in an article or book, without illustrating it. Other scholars may not even inform the museum of their coming reference to an object in its collection. These will be the most difficult to collect. [return to text] [7] A newspaper clipping that documents a fundraising event or an exhibit opening should be added as a citation for the event. [return to text] [8] The discussion is hypothetical in the sense that the features described and models suggested have not been built and have not been tested against live conditions. In addition, data dictionary items are also to some extent hypothetical and will need to be modified to suit specific needs and established practices. [return to text] [9] Because not all “citations” will be bibliographic, but will have to include everything from audio tapes, multi-media products, reproductions of two- and three-dimensional objects plus whoknowswhat, MARC tags may prove insufficient. [return to text] [10] In one possible scenario for the construction of a citation system (if the object file structure permits it) each citation or usage item can be logged as a non-accessioned item within the object file. In this case, links to records within the same file will pull out the appropriate relation between objects and citations in much the same way as objects may be linked to other objects. Each entry must be identified by type: Accessioned Object, Book/Periodical in Library, Bibliographic Citation, Object Label, etc. The major objection to this strategy is that it fills the museum’s object file with a lot of clutter. This paper assumes (in contrast) that the citation file will be distinct from the object file. [return to text] [11] For these items, if not for the general holdings, a field dedicated to contain the OCLC or RLIN holdings data may prove useful here. [return to text] [12] The call for citation references may fall in multiple locations within an object record. They must be addressable as an accumulation of citations viewable on call, may document specific assertions that can be found in nearly any field, or serve to identify the object record by reference to standard handbooks or reference guides (e.g. Blunt, Drawings, No. 141b). When the latter occurs, there should be a window into the set of citation records that will display those entries (by their common abbreviation) that are traditionally used to identify or catalogue the object. This means that any citation may be coded as a “standard reference” for the catalogued collection. [return to text] [13] If a “line item veto” is provided, it would be a fairly easy matter also to allow the user to indicate a custom sort sequence for the out coming report. [return to text] [14] Each such link should offer an opportunity to explain the circumstances underlying the link between assertion and its documentation. The explanation should be able to be traced to the staff member who established the connection. Citation entries should be able to support comments and notes by staff members too. [return to text] [15] See above for another reference to informal citations. [return to text] [16] See above footnote 12 for an exception. [return to text] [17] At this point one should raise the issue of the right of privacy in research. Ordinarily a scholar’s research is considered confidential. It may be necessary, therefore, to distinguish between those collected records that require confidential treatment and those that do not. Ordinarily one would assume that the supposition of privacy expires when a scholar publishes his findings or delivers them to his public, but that may not apply to scholarly "work-product." One must also consider the issue of who own scholarship created on behalf of a museum by its employees. Is this work for hire, as defined in United States Copyright law. If so, are research products (like work products) included? [return to text] [18] The day is not far away when the museum store will be brought into the process of supplying photographs to the public and visiting (but unannounced) students and scholars. A kiosk in the museum store [or a presence on the web] can provide a front end to the collection database. The user will be able to purchase a photograph of any accessioned object in a variety of qualities. The image file, stored on CD-ROMs or other high density media, will be processed on the spot and presented to the purchaser. The database engine can also be made to ask the customer if he wants to purchase an object report with a citation bibliography that will be sent to him. The customer enters his mailing address for the report to be sent. The development department picks up the customer’s name and address (and even a record of the items ordered) and uses it for public relations and solicitation purposes (if considered accepted practice). [return to text] [19] Negatives and transparencies must be marked as suitable or unsuitable for reproduction. Even those marked "unsuitable" must be kept for their archival significance. Transparencies lent to publishers must be inspected for condition when they are sent out and when they are returned. [return to text] [20] The programmer has the option of creating a separate database file of documentation or of integrating the documentation data into the object data in a single database. Because the description of object documentation bears many of the same fielding requirements as the object itself, there may be reason to implement this tactic. Usually they will be kept separately, however. [Data model for the Academic Image Cooperative kept image and object files separate, Visual Resources Data Model ver. 3.0 integrates them.] [return to text] [21] Kodak Photo CD numbers, for instance, are assigned in the factory and cannot be predetermined. So for a Photo CD there might be three levels of media identification numbers before attachment to an object id: 1) Photo Log Number, 2) Photographic Media Number and 3) Photo CD number. In this writer’s opinions, photograph log numbers should be assigned sequentially, and should not attempt to identify the works photographed. [return to text] [22] This schema offers no utility to preserve the original tentative citation record. [return to text]
[23] For some projects the museum may require a proof before permission is granted to publish or produce. [return to text] Robert Baron Home Page | Museum Management: Papers | Guides |