Open Forum

 View Only

  • 1.  Lending Systems for Museums?

    Posted 11-29-2023 02:46 PM
    Edited by Marwah Saleh 11-29-2023 02:53 PM

    Hello all! I am currently searching for software to use for lending and inventory. We are a small to medium museum that lends out "exploration kits" that are categorized by topic. Each kit contains between 10 - 15 items, some of which are specimens and some are not (think bug boxes, books, etc), so collections management software would not be a good fit. The items are unique to that kit and can't be taken out. I'm looking for an online system that can do a multitude of things: 

    1. Be audience facing - allow for anyone to check out a kit, similar to a library
    2. Be internally facing - allows us to maintain inventory, mark kits or items that need to be quarantined, etc 
    3. Price point is definitely an issue, but I'm willing to hear suggestions from a wide range of price if you have them

    Please leave your suggestions to reputable systems we can potentially use! Thank you in advance. 



    ------------------------------
    Marwah Saleh
    Education Programs Specialist
    Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
    Chicago IL
    ------------------------------



  • 2.  RE: Lending Systems for Museums?

    Posted 12-04-2023 04:56 PM
    Hi Marwah,

    I'm with the Artwork Archive team and we can certainly help with managing the lending of your exploration kits. Even though we have "artwork" in our name, we work with a number of different types of collections and collecting institutions. 

    We are an online collection management system and your audiences can connect with you directly from our platform; we have a website embed too. Many organizations come to us to organize and manage their inventory so we'd certainly be able to help you manage your kits. And lastly, our price point is very affordable. We offer a lifetime 30% discount to nonprofits and our plans start at $29/month (without the discount). We're all about making our database tools accessible and a big piece of that is affordability.

    I'd be happy to connect if you're interested. You can reach me at elysian@artworkarchive.com.

    All the best,
    Elysian
    --

    Elysian McNiff Koglmeier (she/her)
    Head of Partnerships
    Artwork Archive

    Part Time Hours
    Online: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays

    National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) Board Member





    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Lending Systems for Museums?

    Posted 12-05-2023 07:56 AM

    Have you considered something like TinyCat, which manages a LibraryThing catalog (that isn't necessarily limited to books)?



    ------------------------------
    Arlene Yu
    Director, Knowledge and Legacy
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


Related Content