Open Forum

Hi All!

I was wondering what software others use as they create their artifact checklists for exhibitions, especially in the development phase when the checklist is in constant flux and loans are not yet confirmed. Right now we use excel for all of the relevant data (dimensions, descriptions, case and artifact numbers, gallery sections, lender info, etc.) and keep a separate folder of images, but we are often asked for illustrated checklists from other departments, designers, etc.  

Thank you for sharing your systems!

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Shira Goldstein
Exhibitions Manager
National Museum of American Jewish History
Philadelphia PA
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Hi Shira,
This is something that can be easily handled by any Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). That way you can keep the data and the digital assets together, you can sort, and search, you can export all or sets of assets and information in multiple formats (including Excel), etc. It sets you up for managing rights and permissions and expiring assets/objects that don't end up in the final exhibition. It allows you to share assets and images with outside designers and <g class="gr_ gr_493 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="493" data-gr-id="493">colaborators</g>. The possibilities are endless.
Happy to discuss if you like.

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Heidi Quicksilver
Vice President of Technology
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
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------Original Message------

Hi All!

I was wondering what software others use as they create their artifact checklists for exhibitions, especially in the development phase when the checklist is in constant flux and loans are not yet confirmed. Right now we use excel for all of the relevant data (dimensions, descriptions, case and artifact numbers, gallery sections, lender info, etc.) and keep a separate folder of images, but we are often asked for illustrated checklists from other departments, designers, etc.  

Thank you for sharing your systems!

------------------------------
Shira Goldstein
Exhibitions Manager
National Museum of American Jewish History
Philadelphia PA
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A Microsoft Word table works the best, in my opinion--unlike Excel, the pictures stay within the cells where they're placed, even when you do a sort or move rows around. (In Excel they seem to sort of "float" over the spreadsheet.) Without a table, the earlier comment about Word is true; you need to be a somewhat advanced user to know how to manipulate the image settings that affect things like text wrapping. With or without a table, save as a .pdf before sharing so that the folks on the other end (who may not have your same fonts) will see what you see and all your hard work formatting won't go out the window!

A DAMS sounds great for making an exhibition of your own treasures, but I imagine if you're dealing with loans from other institutions, you'd have to all be working with the same software, yes?

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Carrie Hunnicutt
Manager of Marketing & PR
Meadows Museum - Southern Methodist University
Dallas TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-11-2017 07:02 PM
From: Dixie Neilson
Subject: illustrated artifact checklists

I have used Microsoft Publisher with pretty good results; you can set up the format with placeholders for photos and then just move the photos in and out of those places when you need to.  I used to use MS Word, but it's really a pain because many times the images affect the placement of the text.

 

Dixie Neilson

Collections Manager and MS Faculty