Open Forum

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Kristi McMillan
Director of Learning & Engagement
Asheville Art Museum
kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org | (828) 253-3227
Asheville, NC
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We migrated to CatalogIt from Embark. The migration was fairly painless (especially considering we were the first to migrate from Embark) and they have tons of front facing options once you get migrated over. More than we'll ever use. OH and it's WAY cheaper. Just a thought.

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Matthew Isble
Exhibit Designer & Founder of MuseumTrade.org
Crocker Art Museum
Sacramento CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-30-2020 11:03 AM
From: Kristi McMillan
Subject: EmbARK/Web Kiosk integration with WordPress

Good morning,

I'm trying to identify a couple of museums that have successfully integrated EmbARK/Web Kiosk with WordPress. If your museum makes your collection publicly accessible through EmbARK/Web Kiosk, and you'd be willing to answer a few questions as we upgrade this feature on our website, please email me at kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org.

Many thanks for your help! Have a great weekend,

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Kristi McMillan
Director of Learning & Engagement
Asheville Art Museum
kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org | (828) 253-3227
Asheville, NC
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Hi Kristi - 
We put a WordPress layer over our Web Kiosk interface several years ago and have been really pleased with the overall effect. It has the look/feel of our website while having all the standard benefits of a CMS driven online collection.  The templates provided by EmbARK were modified by a third-party who were comfortable with both EmbARK standards and Word Press. Once that was completed, I have been able to maintain them internally - even when we added significant numbers of resources to the website during shutdown. 

While WordPress and EmbARK are not a perfect fit (like WordPress gets an update and I am not aware and then the online collection doesn't update for a day or two), it hasn't been a significant problem. I am so pleased with EmbARK overall - specifically with the help/support from their staff - that this is just a minor inconvenience. I haven't used CatalogIt, but the value of EmbARK's  support and expertise makes the cost well worth it for our organization.

I am happy to talk more offline!
Best, 
Anne 


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Anne Lenhart
Collections Manager
Meadows Museum - Southern Methodist University
Dallas TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2020 01:40 PM
From: Matthew Isble
Subject: EmbARK/Web Kiosk integration with WordPress

We migrated to CatalogIt from Embark. The migration was fairly painless (especially considering we were the first to migrate from Embark) and they have tons of front facing options once you get migrated over. More than we'll ever use. OH and it's WAY cheaper. Just a thought.

------------------------------
Matthew Isble
Exhibit Designer & Founder of MuseumTrade.org
Crocker Art Museum
Sacramento CA

Original Message:
Sent: 10-30-2020 11:03 AM
From: Kristi McMillan
Subject: EmbARK/Web Kiosk integration with WordPress

Good morning,

I'm trying to identify a couple of museums that have successfully integrated EmbARK/Web Kiosk with WordPress. If your museum makes your collection publicly accessible through EmbARK/Web Kiosk, and you'd be willing to answer a few questions as we upgrade this feature on our website, please email me at kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org.

Many thanks for your help! Have a great weekend,

------------------------------
Kristi McMillan
Director of Learning & Engagement
Asheville Art Museum
kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org | (828) 253-3227
Asheville, NC
------------------------------

Hi Kristi,

We have worked with a number of museums to complete integrations between EmbARK Web Kiosk and WordPress (as well as other web content management systems).  Many Kiosk sites simply customize the templates to match the look and feel of the main museum site and then make a direct link.  The biggest advantage of integration is that the base URL stays exactly the same when viewing collection content -- and yet each page still has a unique Kiosk URL that can be bookmarked (unlike iFrames).

The challenge with CMS integration is that you need a developer who understands how to pull the Kiosk content over.  Otherwise, EmbARK Support provides any help you need to customize the display of the database content part and remove all extra headers, footers, and styling that are no longer needed.  When everything if finished, the Kiosk content refreshes automatically every night and the styling is all controlled as part of your regular website.

• The Meadows Museum at SMU has already posted a link to their site here. https://meadowsmuseumdallas.org/collections/

• The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art has a great integration (feel free to contact Carrie Tovar there). https://smoca.org/collections/

• San Jose Museum of Art has an integration (not with WordPress) at | San José Museum of Art

I can share contacts for others as well as needed.

Hope this is helpful!
Robb

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Robert Detlefs
Director, Customer Care
Gallery Systems, Inc.
New York, NY
www.gallerysystems.com
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-30-2020 11:03 AM
From: Kristi McMillan
Subject: EmbARK/Web Kiosk integration with WordPress

Good morning,

I'm trying to identify a couple of museums that have successfully integrated EmbARK/Web Kiosk with WordPress. If your museum makes your collection publicly accessible through EmbARK/Web Kiosk, and you'd be willing to answer a few questions as we upgrade this feature on our website, please email me at kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org.

Many thanks for your help! Have a great weekend,

------------------------------
Kristi McMillan
Director of Learning & Engagement
Asheville Art Museum
kmcmillan@ashevilleart.org | (828) 253-3227
Asheville, NC
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