Database and software for conservation records

I'm trying to locate any institutional conservation departments
that can give us information on how the Museum System fares as a
tool for conservation documentation or can back us up as fellow
Filemaker-Pro users.

Karen Potje <kpotje [at] cca__qc__ca> writes

>... I'm trying to locate any institutional conservation departments
>that can give us information on how the Museum System fares as a
>tool for conservation documentation or can back us up as fellow
>Filemaker-Pro users.

The Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, has been using
Filemaker-Pro databases since the mid 1990's and has been very happy
with them. In the past 18 months the conservation department have
been developing our own layout within the main objects database for
condition reporting and object treatment.  This has not only speeded
up our documentation process enormously by preventing duplication of
information that is already available and having a series of pop-up
lists for basic treatments, but also makes our additional
descriptions and materials information available to the wider
collections management and curatorial departments. We find the
Filemaker-Pro system is very flexible and can be easily adapted and
added to when new fields or layouts become necessary, without the
need to pay for development.

Versions of the databases are available on-line (minus conservation
information), but although the museum is less happy with these at
present, it does provide basic access for no development costs.  We
will shortly be upgrading to Filemaker 7, which should be better for
web access. The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge
University also use Filemaker, along with several other museums in
the UK and they are all very happy with it. To look at the Pitt
Rivers on-line databases visit
<URL:http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/databases>

Heather Richardson, Conservator
Alison Petch, Museum Registrar
Pitt Rivers Museum
University of Oxford


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:25
                Distributed: Wednesday, December 1, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-18-25-016
                                  ***