At the Yale Center for British Art, we use ORBIS as the primary database for our printed material including maps, serials, etc.), realia (including paintboxes, toys and games), and for manuscripts and archival collections.
We have begun a project to describe all the manuscripts to the item level and are putting the information into a Microsoft Access database. We hope to convert these records into SGML-based EAD for retrieval on the Yale University Library Finding Aid Project page.
We use The Museum System (TMS) for the cataloging of our paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints. As of November 2, 1998, we have 13,859 records in TMS; 849 of these have images attached (lo-res 72 dpi).
Attached are the screens for two of the modules, the Object module (cataloging individual objects) and the Constituent module (for all names associated with an object). We are very keen to use controlled vocabularies whenever possible. We will be using the ULAN for artist names and the Art and Architecture Thesaurus for subject analysis, supplemented by LCSH and Iconclass when necessary. The ULAN and the AAT are an integral part of TMS (see attachment) and it is easy to attach to the object module.
The Thesaurus of Geographic Names is about to be loaded into TMS; we will rely on this thesaurus for the forms of geographic headings.
We plan to have the database searchable through the Web, although are waiting for the Internet module from TMS (due to come out in 1999) to see exactly how that will happen.
We are interested in figuring a way to link ORBIS records to records in TMS (and vice versa). It may be that the 856 field in an ORBIS record can link to a name in the TMS Constituent module but we haven't figured out how this will work yet.
MESL
I think I was also supposed to report on MESL (Museum Educational Site Licensing Project). You can consult their home page.
To see how the MESL system works, do a search here (I looked "across several museums" for "turner" and got a good response. A few of the 14 museums and universities involved in the project no longer support access to the database, but you can get a feel for the project anyway.)
The fields used in a MESL record are listed at: http://images.grainger.uiuc.edu/mesl/information/Datadic.htm
To look at an object record, go to: http://images.grainger.uiuc.edu/cgis/mesl3.dll?3985
I was also supposed to update everyone on the state of the Special Collections Subcommittee Report on Copyright. It is still with Ann Okerson but should be available on the web at some point in the near future.
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