Hiya-
Your situation is a familiar one...as I read this I thought..."man, I know this tune!"
I worked in a "non collecting" arts center that, despite the "non collecting", indeed had a collection of about 450 objects. That had never been inventoried. And had no locations. We were very, very low budget for the visual arts department, so my ability to purchase one of the big boys of collections management software was very limited. We were also bound to be a Mac only campus, and I kind of refuse (read: am extremely aggravated to an almost irrational degree) to mirror Windows just to use my database. So I sought a third route.
I used eHive for this particular institution, because we lacked significant IT support. It was also web based, which I really wanted, so I could enter data from anywhere (however at last look, the site was not responsive...which is another irrational aggravation but that's another story...) and the user interface was somewhat intern proof, meaning the fields did what they said on the tin. I had issues with the levels of reporting and not being able to customize, and it was worth the $99 upgrade to get more space for images, but it was the right tool for this particular job.
There's also Collective Access, which I almost went with for the same project, but I had concerns with other staff's ability to navigate it and operate it with ease. It was a little more technical than eHive, and for that reason I chose eHive over collective access, although I like CA's open access ethos better and I feel like they offer more to the user, as long as the user(s) know how to leverage the features.
To me, the choice is almost always down to a few factors
- IT support available (in house? a consultant? how much for the consultant?)
- Budget available (is this in the budget? Will it continue to be in the budget--maintenance is required)
- Who will be using it (Only professional registrars/curators? Only volunteers? I like to think about how much time and energy will be involved in getting people on board with the database...if it is a Byzantine system, the time cost to supervise and fix might be huge, even if the cost of the software is not.)
- What features do you REALLY need right now, and what features can you foresee needing in the future? What can meet both of those, and which is most immediate? If your museum is kind of happily putting along with decent documentation, maybe the choice is for those future features? If you have never had a catalog, it might be better to focus on the most immediately needed features and hope for support in the future.
Cheers,
Tracey
------------------------------
Tracey Berg-Fulton
Collections Database Associate
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh PA
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 05-23-2015 12:44 PM
From: Alexis Leader
Subject: Collections Management Software
I currently serve as chief curator and registrar of the Pensacola Museum of Art. I am writing a grant that will hopefully enable me to purchase a collections management software program. I have received a bid from Gallery Systems for their EmBark program for $8,000. I would like to reach out to two other companies for bids before completing grant. What systems do your museum collections operate on? What are the pros and/or cons of that system.
We have a small Permanent Collection. Only 400+ accessioned works (primarily 20th - 21st century works on paper). The museum currently manages data through paper files and an Excel spreadsheet. It is a bit like continuing to work with a card catalog system and I truly do hope we can purchase a software program this year that will enable us to do everything from collections and digital asset management to web publishing (for our visitors to the website to view our collection online) and maintain donor and install/loan data.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Alexis
------------------------------
Alexis Leader
Director of Curatorial Affairs
Pensacola Museum of Art
Pensacola FL
------------------------------