Open Forum

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11/17/2020 2:44:00 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Being a University Museum, all our collections are educational.  But, we distinguish between Permanent (exhibit/research) and Education (K-12
programing) collections, as separate classification type within the database.  Documentation for both types is identical.  The only difference is curation and use.

A bit of history that led to our scenario:
Originally the objects used for "education" came out of the permanent collections and were tracked under the original curatorial sections, with a location of Education Department.   As the Education Department now exclusively handles K-12 program, we have systematically removed permanent collections from the department.  The result is that Education functions as its own curatorial section with its own collections.   This material consists of a variety of objects vetted for student handling or show/tell by a docent.  As some of it comes to us through gifts, it must be tracked in the database in the same way as the permanent collections.  The same holds true for museum purchases.  Using the main database helps track use, damage and loss which is common with a high use/handling of education collections.  Meanwhile, college and graduate student courses/research utilized the permanent collections through the curatorial sections or a class coordinator. 

Chrisso Boulis
Registrar Records
Penn Museum

------------------------------
Chrisso Boulis
Registrar, Records
Penn Museum - University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11/18/2020 8:05:00 AM
From: Chrisso Boulis
Subject: RE: Education Collection

Being a University Museum, all our collections are educational.  But, we distinguish between Permanent (exhibit/research) and Education (K-12
programing) collections, as separate classification type within the database.  Documentation for both types is identical.  The only difference is curation and use.

A bit of history that led to our scenario:
Originally the objects used for "education" came out of the permanent collections and were tracked under the original curatorial sections, with a location of Education Department.   As the Education Department now exclusively handles K-12 program, we have systematically removed permanent collections from the department.  The result is that Education functions as its own curatorial section with its own collections.   This material consists of a variety of objects vetted for student handling or show/tell by a docent.  As some of it comes to us through gifts, it must be tracked in the database in the same way as the permanent collections.  The same holds true for museum purchases.  Using the main database helps track use, damage and loss which is common with a high use/handling of education collections.  Meanwhile, college and graduate student courses/research utilized the permanent collections through the curatorial sections or a class coordinator. 

Chrisso Boulis
Registrar Records
Penn Museum

------------------------------
Chrisso Boulis
Registrar, Records
Penn Museum - University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Hi Kathryne,

We give education objects a different number from the rest of the accessioned objects and catalog them in Past Perfect as part of the object collection under the assumption that people will look there.  They are clearly described as part of the teaching collection.



------------------------------
Michele Lyons
Associate Director and Curator
Stetten Museum of Medical Research NIH
Bethesda MD
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

This is essentially what we do at the US Marshals Museum. 

Any non-expendable educational materials are recorded (with their storage location) as part of the Education Collection. This helps us to keep track of them for their use. 

Good Luck!

------------------------------
David Kennedy
Curator of Collections and Exhibits
US Marshals Museum
Fort Smith, AR
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-18-2020 08:37 AM
From: Michele Lyons
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Kathryne,

We give education objects a different number from the rest of the accessioned objects and catalog them in Past Perfect as part of the object collection under the assumption that people will look there.  They are clearly described as part of the teaching collection.



------------------------------
Michele Lyons
Associate Director and Curator
Stetten Museum of Medical Research NIH
Bethesda MD

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

We have a wide range of accession number types since we are over 130 years old.  The Education prefix is part of the old Curatorial prefix era.  We then went to tripartite numbers. We have a unique prefix for loans, sampling/analysis material from archaeological expeditions, and props/whatever.  The need to put numbers on everything going into exhibit with a label including props annoyed some of our staff until we got a nicely structured research question from a student on models and props used in exhibits. 

By the way, we use EMU as our central database, though we still have a few outlying secondary organizational systems in use. 

Chrisso Boulis
Registrar Records
Penn Museum

------------------------------
Chrisso Boulis
Registrar, Records
Penn Museum - University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-18-2020 08:37 AM
From: Michele Lyons
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Kathryne,

We give education objects a different number from the rest of the accessioned objects and catalog them in Past Perfect as part of the object collection under the assumption that people will look there.  They are clearly described as part of the teaching collection.



------------------------------
Michele Lyons
Associate Director and Curator
Stetten Museum of Medical Research NIH
Bethesda MD

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

We do use PastPerfect and have in the past put education items in the database by assigning them EDU numbers.  However, we treated them like any other accessioned item and, if paper, put in Archives, if a book, put in Library, if art or a 3D object, put in Objects.  This way, they come up in searches.  With limited staff, we generally don't try to put all of the education items in the data base as much of it is meant to be used and replaced when worn out and there is no staff available to track it.  However, to track education items or props that go on exhibit--and so future curators have a way of knowing what is a prop and what just never got numbered when deinstalling--I do assign PROP numbers to any non-artifact going on exhibit.  I've got an accession number in PastPerfect called "PROP" and objects are assigned a prop number that includes the date (so that we don't require a prop log and can assign the number from wherever we are).  For example, the first prop assigned for today would be PROP.2020nov18.1.  We create an object record for the item and physically number the artifact.  

Hope this helps,
Dana

------------------------------
Dana Neitzel
Curator
San Mateo County Historical Association
Redwood City CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11/17/2020 2:44:00 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Hi -

We do our databases in FileMaker Pro and have separate databases for both our main artifact collection and our teaching collection. We used the main artifacts collection database as a starting template for the teaching collection, then added extra, needed fields like Use Assignment (available for individual loan, attached to a gallery program, part of a loan kit, etc.), Education Program Name, Recommended Education Grade Level. etc.

Having a separate database makes it so easy to put together pdf lists of possible loan items for teachers.

Kim Sheahan
Spurlock Museum of World Cultures
University of Illinois


Original Message:
Sent: 11/17/2020 2:44:00 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

One of the best reasons to database education/teaching collections is in order to track condition. Just because objects are designated for hands-on instruction or other face-to-face learning experiences doesn’t mean they are entirely expendable or do not merit conservation.

James Bryant
SOJOURN Science - Nature - Education
Santa Fe, NM
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bryant-0598a940/


Original Message:
Sent: 11/17/2020 2:44:00 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

HI Kathryne,

We have put our education collection, which we call MAG Central,  into Past Perfect with a designated letter and number system.  We use the letters MC (for MAG Central) in-front of  our accession number format.  Under the Collection heading  in Past Perfect we also designate this as MAG Central.  This allows anyone using the database to find our education collection quickly and allows us to track where the objects are. This also allows us to track how the MAG Central items come into the collection and create a loan agreement for any of the items that are being borrowed by educators in the community.  We used Past Perfect to create extended labels for each of the objects that can also go with the artifacts.  For us it's been such a time saver.




------------------------------
Kimberly Verrier
Exhibitions Coordinator
Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery
Red Deer AB
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Hello all,

I study the history of educational programming in American science museums so I'm really excited to see this discussion! It is helpful for me to understand the work that goes into managing records for educational materials - a task that several museums I've studied were unable to take on. In addition, for most of my career I've been a museum educator and keeping track of our materials was rarely a priority (at least for the positions I've held).

That's it. I just wanted to say thank you!

All the best,
Dave

------------------------------
D. O. (Dave) McCullough
Historian
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow
American Philosophical Society Library & Museum
Philadelphia, PA

------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

I am not familiar with how we manage our education collection at my current museum; however, the previous museum I worked at used FileMaker Pro to track the teaching collection. Objects would be given an accession number that began with TC (teaching collection) and entered into the database with a description identifying them "not for exhibit". The teaching collection was also all housed together in a low-security storage space (just a locked room behind the classroom) and was not intermingled with other objects in the museum's collections.

As a side note--cataloguing the teaching collection can be a good project to teach interns object handling or condition reporting and how to update the database. Best of luck!

Keri Smith 
Associate Preparator
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Norman, OK

------------------------------
Keri Smith
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art - University of Oklahoma
Norman OK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Great suggestion to use cataloging the education collection as training!

------------------------------
Stephanie Fuglaar Statz, Ph. D.
Museum Coordinator
Tooele Valley Museum
Tooele, UT
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-18-2020 02:48 PM
From: Keri Smith
Subject: Education Collection

I am not familiar with how we manage our education collection at my current museum; however, the previous museum I worked at used FileMaker Pro to track the teaching collection. Objects would be given an accession number that began with TC (teaching collection) and entered into the database with a description identifying them "not for exhibit". The teaching collection was also all housed together in a low-security storage space (just a locked room behind the classroom) and was not intermingled with other objects in the museum's collections.

As a side note--cataloguing the teaching collection can be a good project to teach interns object handling or condition reporting and how to update the database. Best of luck!

Keri Smith
Associate Preparator
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Norman, OK

------------------------------
Keri Smith
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art - University of Oklahoma
Norman OK

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

Education collections at our institution are managed by the educators. Education collections are mentioned in a section of the Collections Management Policy only to identify that fact. They are not governed in the same manner as permanent collections since education collections in our case are usually meant to be handled extensively. We use PastPerfect but do not include education materials. There is a great partnership between the collections and education departments on how things are acquired and deaccessioned from either area. However, each has different expectations for use.

------------------------------
Ellen Endslow
Director of Collections/Curator
Chester County History Center
West Chester PA
Chester County History Center
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------

HI Kathryne-- we are not on PastPerfect, but we have just recently added all our Education Collection records into our collections database, and tagged them as "inactive" so they don't come up in a general search of the permanent collection and don't carry over to our public collections website. If you want to include them in your searching, you just have to tick a box on the search page. Our Edu Coll objects are numbered sequentially with an ED at the front, so their numbers don't look like permanent collection numbers.

------------------------------
Kerry Schauber
Research Assistant
Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester
Rochester NY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 02:43 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Education Collection

Hi Everyone,

I'm seeking advice on documenting and cataloging a museum's education collection. For any users that use Past Perfect or other collection management software, do you include education objects in your database? We are considering putting education collection objects in the "archive" section of Past Perfect. Have any of you done this? How do you typically number/track objects in your education collection?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

------------------------------
Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
------------------------------