Let’s Talk Unmanaged Collections

The new edition of “Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections” is in the making but not done. In fact, this post finds me bowed over my revising notes and frantically typing in all I have missed last time.

Time to open up the conversation, show you what I have done so far and comparing notes with you, the readers of the first edition, students from my courses, or just people generally interested in the topic.

Time for you to grab the keys – or the mike!

Calico cat grabbing computer keyboard

Join the free online talk!

Museum Study will host a free Unmanaged Collections Talk on Tuesday December 19 at 9 pm Continental Europe, 8 pm U.K., 3 pm Eastern North America, 2 pm Central, 1 pm Mountain, Noon Pacific, 11 am Alaska, 10 am Hawaii, Wednesday December 20 9 am New Zealand, Wednesday 7 am Australian Eastern.

How can you register for it?

Simple. Just send an email to Webinar@MuseumStudy.com

You have a question or idea but don’t want to join or speak at the event

No problem. Just comment on here or email me at angela.kipp@museumsprojekte.de


#unmanagedcollections #wheredoIstart #neglectedcollections #registrartrek

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Registrar Trek goes Washington D.C.

Fall is the season for conferences and this year I will be at Gallery System’s Collective Imagination in Washington D.C. from November 13 to 17. I am excited to meet a lot of registrars, collections managers, and other people involved in museum documentation there. Of course, I will speak about managing previously unmanaged collections, this time about how to tackle them if you are using TMS. If you attend as well, drop by and say “hi”. If you don’t attend but are in the area and like to meet for a coffee, drop me a line. I can’t promise it will work out, but I will be around on the weekends before and after the conference to get to know the city, so it might.

See you there!

Angela

View on the Capitol and the city of Washington by day from a heightened position.
The Capitol and the city of Washington, image by 12019 via pixabay.
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EODEM – It is here! But why should I care?

EODEM 1.0, the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model, was officially released on September 1st. But why should you, a registrar, be excited about those five letters? Isn’t it just another standard in a museum world that doesn’t lack standards – but is short of people, money, time, and, every so often, the institutional buy-in to enforce those standards?

Well, first of all, it isn’t a standard: it is an exchange model. That’s right, this isn’t something that will force you to restructure your data – although, seriously, there are good reasons to do so while you are at it, and EODEM itself is defined as a profile of the LIDO standard. EODEM is something that will enable you to exchange the data you already have about your objects with other colleagues. Something you most likely already do when you are lending, borrowing, and/or co-operating with other institutions for exhibitions.

So the tedious task of typing data from a spreadsheet or email you received from another institution could become a thing of the past with EODEM! If it is implemented, you can just import the EODEM file your colleague sent you and the information will appear in exactly the fields in your database where you need them to be. It doesn’t matter what collections management system your colleague uses. If one system can create an EODEM file from its data, you will be able to import that EODEM file in whatever system you are using!

Logo of the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model, yellow letters EODEM with an arrow pointing from the E through the O and another coming from the M
EODEM logo

There is one big if, though: just because EODEM is out doesn’t mean it is already in your collections management system. The good news: EODEM was developed together with vendors, so, right from the start, this model was built in a way that should make it easy to implement it in most collections management systems. The bad news? Vendors of collections management systems are not big software companies, just as the museum field isn’t a big industry. So, there isn’t an armada of developers idly waiting for EODEM to be ready for them to bring it into their systems. Instead, EODEM is competing with a lot of other things to be implemented, developed, and/or fixed.

And guess what? That’s where you come in.

The more users of a particular collections management system ask their vendor about when EODEM will be available to them, the more likely it will be to get a top spot on the roadmap. So, what you, yes, you, the only registrar on staff, the loan arranger, the museum professional who wears far too many hats, can do to export and import your exhibition data with a click of a button in the future, is simply to ask your vendor when you will see that option in your own database.

Nagging someone until they finally do it just because it is easier than saying “no” or “we will see about that” to you every single time sounds familiar to you? Ha! Thought so! It is basically the job description of a registrar. Which means, you will get EODEM if you put your mind to it.

You got this!

Angela

Learn more about EODEM:

All about EODEM on the CIDOC website:

EODEM specifications and samples:

Rupert Shepherd keeps you up to date with the development on his personal website:

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Update on 2nd edition of Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections – and Registrar Trek goes Aberdeen!

Bild von <a href="https://pixabay.com/de/users/jmclellon-23686126/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=7146389">Jamie McLennan</a> auf <a href="https://pixabay.com/de//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=7146389">Pixabay</a>
Aberdeen South Breakwater Head Lighthouse (built 1815), picture by Jamie McLennan via Pixabay

Just a short update: Work on the next edition of “Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections” has begun. I start with doing a complete read-through, marking passages that are outdated, clumsily worded (I often used “he or she” which will now become “they”, for example), or could use a bit more clarification. If you have found something along these lines, please, let me know, a second pair of eyes is always best.

I have found a few colleagues willing to contribute real world examples and success stories, but I could still use a few examples from indigenous collections (preferably taken care of by people who have ties to the nations involved, but not a must) and digital collections.

If you happen to know someone who happens to know someone who knows someone… please spread the word!

In other news, I will be visiting Aberdeen at the beginning of September, doing my own version of work and travel – I will train a client and do some sightseeing and hiking in between. I am excited because the city itself and Aberdeenshire were still missing on my map! If you happen to live in the area and would like to get together over a coffee or a tea and some collections management chit-chat, drop me a line.

Stay hydrated, healthy, and happy, everyone.

Angela

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The times they are a-changing

Calico cat grabbing computer keyboardAs a former collections manager it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that if you leave a blog mainly unattended for nearly 4 years it gathers dust. Well, not real dust, more… virtual dust?

Google discontinued its RSS subscription management service and it took me a while to discover that the updates weren’t delivered via mail anymore, so you might have missed my post asking about what you missed in Managing Previous Unmanaged Collections and what should be incorporated in the next edition.

After some research, I found a Feedburner alternative in follow.it. So, if you receive updates from a different service, now, it is because of that. I hope it works well, if it doesn’t, please let me know.

The next thing that has been on my to-do list for years was finding a theme that works well on mobile devices. This was rather time-consuming and I lost the language-sensitive header and some of the look-and-feel in the process, but I hope this one works well for you. Feedback about it is also appreciated.

Finally, I will probably not be as active as I was a few years back, too many things have changed, but this blog is still around, so if you got interesting stories or articles concerning our profession to share, please, get in touch!

Take care!

AngelaFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections – Revisited, revised, revamped!

What do you want to see in it?

A calico cat sleeping on a copy of the book Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections

This is important!

It has been seven years since “Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections” first saw the light of day. Rowman & Littlefield kindly asked me if I want to do a new edition and I am inclined to shout: “Heck, yeah!”

But it has been a long while since the first edition and basically, I said all I had to say back then. So, I am handing it over to you: What do you want to see enhanced? What did you miss? What was unnecessary and can be “deaccessioned” in the new edition?

Also, I like to include more of your stories. Has the book helped you tackling a messy collection? Do you like to write a short real-world example? Please, get in contact, I would be delighted.

Have you used the book and it shows because it is dog-eared and full of notes? Please, I want to see those photos of the book in action! I also would very much like to show them on here.

Look into a room with a table leaning upright against a window and some saw horses, indistinct clutter lying about.The world has changed, but some things didn’t. Even after so many years not active here, you can still reach me under angela.kipp AT museumsprojekte.de

With the overtaking of twitter by some people I would rather not be affiliated with, and not making profit of me, I have changed to Mastodon as the friendlier alternative. You can find me there as @registrartrek@glammr.us although I am still in the process of figuring out what and how much I want to do over there.

Ah, yes, the Registrar Trek Blog is its own instance as well, you can get updates by following @admin@world.museumsprojekte.de from your Mastodon account.

Take care and I am looking forward to hearing from you!

AngelaFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Hi again!

Dear readers,

accidentally, a test post was sent out earlier today. It was a post set up to experiment with the functionality of this site and, well, yes, it still works. I set it to a date in the future years ago and apparently, the future is today. So, sorry about that!

I suspect this is some kind of sign I should resume work on this site again, but, honestly, I’m still in the process of finding my feet and with family and work being all but unproblematic I have to ask for your patience.

The past year has been not a good one, so I’m looking forward to 2020. For the happier news I was able to do a trip to London and Scotland in September and met a few fantastic colleagues there. I will be leading a course on managing preciously unmanaged collections again, starting February 3 and there are some signs that the 6th Edition of our “bible” Museum Registration Methods will be out this year.

Until I feel able to write again, enjoy a few pictures of my trip.

Best wishes

Angela

My email provider has changed and I know I lost a few emails in the process of changing. From now on, would you all please use: angela.kipp (at) museumsprojekte.de Thanks!

I always loved Scotland and I fell even more in love with it with this trip. I was travelling by train without a real aim apart from meeting people and taking in the atmosphere.

Traveling up North I missed the train to Thurso due to a delay. Scot Rail organized a taxi to catch the missed train. I really wished such a service existed in Germany. Lovely overland trip, too.

One day I found myself on a ferry, heading for the Orkney Islands.


By chance (and by bus) I found myself in St. Margaret’s Hope, a lovely place. If you ever stop by, taste the scallops at the Murray Arms Hotel, the owners are scuba divers and fish them themselves.
BTW I took the advice of an inhabitant to “Wait til the sunn cumms uuut” for this picture.


As I was soaked on my way from the Standing Stones I sought shelter and tea at the Maeshowe visitor center and met those lovely fellows. Yes, vikings didn’t have horns on their helmets. But you know what? If they don’t care, neither do I.


As a Whovian, I was very pleased with this discovery in Glasgow (I could argue the thing with the test post had to do with wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff happening, but I guess this reference would probably not convince most of you).


The thing I will remember the most about the trip will probably be the politeness of the people I met. As a representative, take this tea bag that only suggests how to treat it.


Interesting enough, the only highland cattle I met up close lives just about 5 km from my home town in Germany, so that’s that.


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Dear readers, fellow registrars and collections specialists,

The Hausbachklamm near Weiler-Simmerberg, Bernd’s home town.

It is my sad duty to inform you that on March 25, exactly 11 years after his father, 4 days after his 51st birthday, my colleague, partner, soulmate and best friend Bernd passed away, suddenly and unexpected. I’m in the process of recollecting myself and at the moment I can’t carry on taking care of this blog. I hope to get back to it some time in the future, as he always said working on this project made me noticeably happy.

We even wrote one blog post together which you might enjoy reading again: “Appliances, furniture and beyond – registering technological objects

Hopefully see you soon

Angela

This post is also available in Italian, translated by Marzia Loddo. Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Specialised congress FOCUS: museum – depot arrangement and collection management

Meet the colleagues at Brandenburg / Havel
Foto: Fritz Fabert

From 15th until 17th of April 2019 the specialized congress FOCUS: museum takes place at the archaeological state museum in Brandenburg an der Havel. This year is all about depot arrangement and collection management.

In numerous speeches, case studies and discussion formats the three-day congress at the Paulikloster in Brandenburg an der Havel is devoted to the issues: integrated project management for new building and rebuilding or rather refurbishment of collection depots, removal management, logistics and transportations, collection management, security, emergency and risk management, pest prevention, storage technology, collection software, inventory, indoor climate, light protection, energy efficiency, conservational aspects, funding opportunities as well as operational concepts.

The FOCUS event covers various culture institutes like big and small museums, archives plus the special case archaeological collections.

In the attendant communication formats like workshops and a fishbowl discussion, but also a joint dinner on the first or rather a small get-together on the second day of the event, there is the possibility to establish contacts with the participants and to discuss interdisciplinary issues. As usual, technical products and a range of services offered by specialist companies will be presented on the area in the approximately 1000m ² historic nave.

The program, further information and tickets are here available: www.focus-museum.de.
FOCUS: MUSEUM is organized by the non-profit organization “Friends of the archaeological state museum Brandenburg e.V.” (FALB) by order and in collaboration with the Brandenburg state office for the preservation of monuments and archaeological state museum (BLDAM).

Übertragung aus dem Deutschen ins Englische von Lina Lassak.

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The Weather Fire Dwarfs or: Some Thoughts on Sensors – Part 3

I know what you are thinking after reading our first two parts of this series: What dataloggers should I buy to measure my climate? There are loads out there and some are pretty expensive!

Here’s the thing: What makes dataloggers expensive is accuracy, especially when it comes to measuring relative humidity. You can buy pretty cheap models, but what makes them cheap is usually cheap sensors. Now, you probably wonder how bad it is to have a cheap sensor. As nearly always, it’s a “depends”. Depending on what? Depending on how stable your “room climate” (although we already saw that there is no such thing) is and how accurate you need your measurement to be.

One thing you have to know is that sensors have a range they operate in, humidity sensors usually and logically between 0 and 100% relative humidity. Within this range they might vary in accuracy. Humidity sensors are typically most accurate in the middle range around 50% rH and become less accurate at the edges under 10% or over 90% rH, they also might become less accurate in very cold or very hot surroundings. Usually, you find these error ranges as graphs in the datasheet of each sensor or device.

That’s pretty theoretically, so I made a test to show you what this can mean (in retrospective I should have used a more diverse set of colors for the diagram, my apologies for that). I put in the same spot three sensors:

DHT22 (light green), corrected DHT22 (blue), generic SHT31 (dark blue), Sensirion SHT35 (green)

  1. A pretty cheap DHT22/AM2302 1 which is a very common temp/rH sensor in the maker/microcontroller scene and which you will find frequently in DIY devices. It is given with a normal accuracy of +/- 2% RH and +/- 5% RH maximum discrepancy (in which range it reaches this maximum discrepancy isn’t given).
    This is the light green line.
  2. A mid-priced generic Chinese version of a Sensirion SHT31 2 which you will also find in more refined DIY projects. It is also given with a +/- 2% RH accuracy.
    This is the dark blue line.
  3. A high-priced original Sensirion SHT35 3 which you will find in professional devices. It is given with an accuracy of +/- 1.5 % RH in a range between 0 and 80% relative humidity, which means it becomes less accurate above these values.
    This is the green line.
  4. In addition, you will find a blue line: This is the linear correction of the DHT22 sensor which is based on the measurements I did with this sensor compared to an Assmann psychrometer. I found the DHT22 was 31 percentage points off the “real” relative humidity I found with the Assmann at 55%. So, I subtracted 31 from the value the DHT22 measured. 4

So, what does the graph show us and what can we learn from it?

All sensors are pretty much the same when it comes to temperature. This tells us that if we only want to measure temperature, we can go with a cheap device.

When it comes to humidity, things become really interesting:

  1. The original DHT22 readings show a much too high humidity, something we already expected because of our measurements with the psychrometer. Naturally, as the sensor can only read 100% max, the lines are cut at 99.9%. As our correction of the sensor is mainly a linear subtraction, it transfers the straight line to 68.9% for our corrected values in these cases (blue line).
  2. The expensive original SHT35 and the cheaper generic SHT31 are not really far apart. When humidity crawls towards the 70% and over it, it seems that the cheaper one (dark blue line) measures a little less humidity than the expensive one (green line). 5
  3. What is really funny is that the cheap sensor seems to have a tendency to over-dramatize events. As we take a closer look at a drop (and later rise) in humidity on July 27 the DHT22 shows a dramatical decrease from 100% in the morning down to 49.7% at 3 p.m. Its corrected version sees an equally dramatic event from 68.9% to 18.7%. As we take a look at the other two sensors nothing this dramatic happens. The most expensive one sees a drop from 66.3% to 40.7%. Still a mild catastrophe if this were a gallery or storage room (it wasn’t), but a huge difference to have a 25% drop than a 50% drop.
  4. A close look at July 27

Especially the last point tells us a lot about cheap and expensive dataloggers. Not because cheap devices necessarily contain an old, beat up DHT22, but because it shows us the general problem with sensors: they are not necessarily acting linear. They’ll need adjusting.

Now, every adjusting is an expensive step. Devices are adjusted to reference points which means the manufacturer does more or less what I did with the DHT22: they measure it against a calibrated source (i.e. a salt solution) and then adjust the output accordingly.

If it is a cheap device it might be only adjusted to one reference point, resulting in what we see in the DHT22. Just because it was 31 percentage points off at 55%, this isn’t necessarily true for the whole range. Instead, it is very unlikely for a sensor to react linear throughout the whole spectrum. It will react differently for different humidity ranges. This is why expensive devices are measured to more reference points and calibrated accordingly, resulting in much more accurate readings throughout the whole range.

I assume that the generic SHT31 was also only tested against one reference point and that the difference we see in the readings against the original Sensirion when the humidity rises is already a sign of it, but as it is still within the possible error range, I can’t prove that.

For me personally, I wouldn’t use DHT22 anymore, for obvious reasons. I can live with the generic SHT31 for cases where I need to get an idea of a setting and in less problematic areas. I’d always go with the high-priced original parts if I have to depend on the readings for loans or critical storage environments.

So, more generally speaking: can I cut costs by buying a cheap device? Yes, if you just have to measure temperature. And yes, if the only thing you need is a rough idea of what happens in regards of rising and dropping or the humidity, but not detailed values. You have to be aware of the fact that it might show a more dramatic drop than what actually happened as well as it is thinkable that it shows you a less dramatic change than what actually happened.
You might want to turn to high quality products when it comes to your more critical applications and it’s always a good idea to take a critical look at the datasheets to know what you are buying.

May your storages and galleries always have a nice and stable climate!

Angela

  1. See full datasheet here: https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Temperature/DHT22.pdf
  2. See details here: http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=162728071099&category=65460&pm=1&ds=0&t=1509175725000&ver=0
  3. See full datasheet of the Sensirion SHT 3x series here: https://www.sensirion.com/de/umweltsensoren/feuchtesensoren/digitale-feuchtesensoren-fuer-diverse-anwendungen/
  4. To be fair, I didn’t treat this particular sensor nice in the past years, so it was already a bit old and used. I have found a lot of DHT22 more close to original humidity values and usually don’t use sensors that are more than 2% off the mark for fieldwork. But as you read on, you will understand why I don’t use them for anything critical anymore.
  5. If I take the most extreme discrepancies, they are in the range of 2-3 percentage points, which would still mean they are in their acceptable error range if I grant one sensor to err on the plus and one to err on the minus side of its spectrum.

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