Open Forum

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder. 
Thank you in advance :)

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Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
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The museum that I'm interning at, we use PastPerfect. Its great for a small/local museum. you can "master" the whole program within two weeks

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Daniel Williams
Museum Intern
Macomb IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------

Hello,
We looked at what we wished our program to do, who will be using it, and costs.
Cheapest for our use is Access database, which we use for our school's ethnographic collections. I know of two other small museums using it (under 30,000 artifacts) and I am also aware of a much larger museum who uses it, but for them it is divided for each of their extensive collections.

It can be a powerful database if set up correctly. It is fairly inexpensive compared to many other museum based programs, but has its downsides with training and presenting our collection online. We also have limited users, as do my museum friends, so volunteers and students aren't using it usually.

In my experience using Access for over 20 years, I've found it can be difficult to teach others to use and that was the biggest problem for us. I've looked into PastPerfect and have discussed it with other collection managers who use it. It sounds like a program easy and fast to learn. From what I understand, it may also provide a way to present your collection online easier than Access does. However, the costs were prohibitive for us and for my smaller museum friends and we went with Access which was more readily available.
I hope this helps some. Good luck!

------------------------------
Kris Travis
Illinois State University
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------

​I've been using Re:Discovery software for the past 16 years and last year upgraded to their Proficio product. I can't say enough about how great they are to work with and how intuitive I find the software. Shop around and get some demonstrations. I am a one woman operation over here and I still got stellar service, so size of your collection or budget isn't necessarily a barrier to getting the same products the big guys have. -Jenny

------------------------------
Jenny Benjamin
Director
Museum of Vision
San Francisco CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2017 06:15 AM
From: Kris Travis
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello,
We looked at what we wished our program to do, who will be using it, and costs.
Cheapest for our use is Access database, which we use for our school's ethnographic collections. I know of two other small museums using it (under 30,000 artifacts) and I am also aware of a much larger museum who uses it, but for them it is divided for each of their extensive collections.

It can be a powerful database if set up correctly. It is fairly inexpensive compared to many other museum based programs, but has its downsides with training and presenting our collection online. We also have limited users, as do my museum friends, so volunteers and students aren't using it usually.

In my experience using Access for over 20 years, I've found it can be difficult to teach others to use and that was the biggest problem for us. I've looked into PastPerfect and have discussed it with other collection managers who use it. It sounds like a program easy and fast to learn. From what I understand, it may also provide a way to present your collection online easier than Access does. However, the costs were prohibitive for us and for my smaller museum friends and we went with Access which was more readily available.
I hope this helps some. Good luck!

------------------------------
Kris Travis
Illinois State University

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------

We've been very happy with Past Perfect, including their tech support.  It's worth paying for that just because!

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

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------

​I have worked at a variety of museums and used a number of different systems over the years.

I would recommend Past Perfect for most small institutions, especially those that use volunteer or interns a lot for cataloging. It is more intuitive than most other systems and easy to train folks. It works particularly well with History and Art objects.

If you are a larger institution that manages many types of collections (history, art, ethnographic, natural history, archives, library) or will be using the database for lots of exhibit development functions I would suggest Re:Discovery.

We use Argus at the Alaska State Museum but it that is mostly out of habit and it is not the easiest program to train new folks on.

------------------------------
Andrew Washburn
Museum Registrar
Alaska State Museums
Juneau AK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------

I've worked with several content management systems and I guess it depends on what kind of functionality you want/need. Do you have dedicated tech staff? Do you need to access it offsite? Will you need it to be hosted? Does it need to handle multiple types of collections (library, archives, museum)? PastPerfect is a good, inexpensive system that's able to catalog objects, archives, library materials, and oral histories. It doesn't accept non-Roman characters (which may or may not be an issue for you) and it is not web-based, so you have to have it installed on a physical machine anywhere you intend to use it (or remote into the machine where it's installed). Another inexpensive option is Collector Systems --which is web-based and has a lot of good fields, but not so great for cataloging archives. Those are the most inexpensive that I know of, but there are plenty of other options. AdLib is more robust and good for handling different kinds of collections (library, archives, museum) and multiple languages; Gallery Systems is also more robust and good for different types of collections; KE EMu is more expensive and would require internal tech staff, but helpful for managing very robust collections and multiple departments. Here's a useful list of some other different CMS vendors. I wouldn't hesitate to reach out to vendors and ask them for some references/people to talk to about how they use the software. Good luck! I know it's a big decision!

------------------------------
Megan MacCall
Curator
Free Library of Philadelphia
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------

We have just installed CollectionSpace, which is a free open source collections management software. We had some initial trouble setting it up because of difficulties working with our contract IT staff, but once we outsourced and hired a certified CollectionSpace Registered Service Provider, setup has been easy. We are able to contract with this person for technical help on an as-needed basis for anything our general IT contractors can't help with, and the Wiki and listserves are very helpful as well.

------------------------------
Emily Robinson
Collections Manager
Birthplace of Country Music
Bristol VA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2017 01:08 PM
From: Megan MacCall
Subject: Collection Software System

I've worked with several content management systems and I guess it depends on what kind of functionality you want/need. Do you have dedicated tech staff? Do you need to access it offsite? Will you need it to be hosted? Does it need to handle multiple types of collections (library, archives, museum)? PastPerfect is a good, inexpensive system that's able to catalog objects, archives, library materials, and oral histories. It doesn't accept non-Roman characters (which may or may not be an issue for you) and it is not web-based, so you have to have it installed on a physical machine anywhere you intend to use it (or remote into the machine where it's installed). Another inexpensive option is Collector Systems --which is web-based and has a lot of good fields, but not so great for cataloging archives. Those are the most inexpensive that I know of, but there are plenty of other options. AdLib is more robust and good for handling different kinds of collections (library, archives, museum) and multiple languages; Gallery Systems is also more robust and good for different types of collections; KE EMu is more expensive and would require internal tech staff, but helpful for managing very robust collections and multiple departments. Here's a useful list of some other different CMS vendors. I wouldn't hesitate to reach out to vendors and ask them for some references/people to talk to about how they use the software. Good luck! I know it's a big decision!

------------------------------
Megan MacCall
Curator
Free Library of Philadelphia
Philadelphia PA

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2017 12:53 PM
From: Stephanie Gadell
Subject: Collection Software System

Hello all!

Is there a specific software program that you prefer to use for your collections? We are expanding soon to a much larger facility and a more vast collection. I have heard some use Excel, Past Perfect, Argus, and then there are the worksheet-type accession forms that we currently use and scan them into our catalog folder.
Thank you in advance :)

------------------------------
Stephanie Gadell
Director of Operations
Sainte Genevieve Museum
Sainte Genevieve MO
------------------------------