Volume XXIII, Number 1 Winter 2005 ONE FOOT in the PAST, CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY
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Volume XXIII, Number 1 Winter 2005 ONE FOOT IN THE PAST, CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY Once upon a time, back in the days in the Royal Street complex to having more the Williams Research Center strengthened when computer terminals glowed green, than 60 networked machines distributed this unified approach to information access. The Historic New Orleans Collection was a across three separate sites. The Systems Previously, each of THNOC’s collecting hotbed of cutting-edge technology—and Department initiated a wide variety of soft- divisions—curatorial, library, and manu- practitioners of the newly minted profes- ware development projects, including a vast scripts—had its own reading room. Now, a sion of museum information management expansion of The Collection’s mailing-list single reading room on the second floor of were beating a path to the doors of 533 program; databases for archival collections; the WRC, where all collections can be Royal Street to get a firsthand look at one and membership in OCLC, the national accessed, provides visitors with a more of the most sophisticated collections- library network most libraries use to catalog effective research experience. management systems in the country. Auto- their books and periodicals. Collections management was now mated collections management represented Yet despite the many infrastructure streamlined at front and back ends—mate- the advent of computing technology into changes and special projects, the heart and rials entered The Collection through a sin- the core museum processes. The Collec- soul of The Collection’s information system gle door and were made available to the tion, which went hi-tech in 1985, was one remained virtually unchanged. By the mid- public in one room. But in between, mate- of the first history museums in the country 1990s it had become apparent that the sys- rials took a circuitous route through sepa- to install an automated system—a particu- tem needed upgrading. But the same fac- rate cataloging and curatorial processes, larly striking accomplishment, given that tors that drove The Collection to seek a resulting in descriptive records of unequal many larger institutions lagged behind. new system complicated its efforts to find a formats: The Historic New Orleans Collection suitable one. Put simply, THNOC had to • Curatorial records were accessible via Newsletter (an earlier incarnation of the find a way to serve, and integrate, its dis- the THNOC system; Quarterly) featured the installation of the parate internal bases. • OCLC provided full library records, new system on its front cover, complete Part of The Collection’s powerful but only the abbreviated registration with pictures of beaming staff members appeal as a historical research institution is records were available locally; hunched over box-like terminals. its melding of museum, library, and • And, in long-standing archival tradi- Years passed and THNOC refined, archival functions. While other institutions tion, manuscripts finding aids existed upgraded, and expanded its computing with similar components exist, none only on paper. facilities. In 1994, in preparation for the entwine these three functions as closely as Ideally, when patrons asked research ques- opening of the Williams Research Center, THNOC. A strategic decision made in the tions, WRC staff would be able to consult a The Collection installed a local area net- late 1980s dictated that every item acquired single source. But that goal remained elusive. work, moved to the Microsoft Windows by the institution be registered in a single As the Systems Department searched operating system, connected to the Inter- computerized tracking system. This strat- for software to merge the collection infor- net, created its first website, and strung egy gave The Collection tremendous con- mation, it became clear that no extant more than a mile of network cabling in the trol over its holdings and afforded staff automation system had the ability to han- WRC. From 1987 to 1996, THNOC members the ability to search all three dle the combined needs of THNOC’s three went from having two personal computers repositories at one time. The opening of research departments. Systems personnel 2 ONE FOOT IN THE FUTURE faced a stark choice: either purchase (and using the new Encoded Archival Descrip- Keely Merritt, photography assistant, scans images for the IMLS-funded digitization project. maintain) three separate information tion standard format almost from the systems, or develop something completely moment it became available, and curatorial new. The latter option prevailed. staff adopted AAT (Art and Architecture Mint. In November The Collection— Throughout 1999 the Systems Depart- Thesaurus) standards for nomenclature. together with the State Library of ment met with individual staff members to When The Collection at last had a system Louisiana, the Louisiana State Museum, analyze the flow of collection information to accommodate this data, it was ready to and the Louis Digital Library—became a through THNOC. After distributing a be imported. recipient of an Institute of Museum and 177-page survey to a dozen library and Over the course of four years and Library Services (IMLS) National Leader- museum-systems vendors, department countless meetings, tests, classes, consulta- ship Grant, one of only 44 awarded nation- members scheduled presentation sessions tions, and the occasional trip to Ottawa wide. Helping to fund the digitization of with four vendors. In essence, Systems was and Vancouver, the Mint (“Minisis Inte- COLLECTIONS-MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS up to 13,000 photographs, paintings, and looking for a company to go out on a grated”) system came into being. A new, drawings over the next two years, the grant limb—to create a product that nobody else streamlined registration module went live provides for a significant addition to The had, but everybody (in time) would want. on January 2, 2003. Once new objects Collection’s digital image collection in both The vendor needed strong development cleared the registration process, registrars number and scope and will help form the skills; solid experience in curatorial, library, could automatically create new records in basis for a digital, non-chemical based and archival applications; and, perhaps dedicated curatorial, library, and manu- photo-duplication process. Linda Epstein, most important, a compelling vision for the scripts cataloging systems. The curatorial project personnel, has completed half of the future. In the end, THNOC chose Minisis portion of this set of applications, which project funded by the Diboll Foundation to Inc., a Canadian firm with a 30-year his- also handles basic collections-management convert the Vieux Carré Survey into an tory in libraries and archives. information for all divisions, went live in electronic resource, available online and Selecting a vendor was merely the first early 2004. In November of that year, the searchable through a mapped interface. In step in a long and arduous implementation Minisis staff and the Systems Department December 2004, The Collection installed process. No computer system, no matter finalized the new library system. The its first membership system, replacing its how technologically advanced, is independ- manuscripts system will follow in 2005. antiquated mailing list with sophisticated ently capable of solving an organization’s Each system includes extensive help and powerful new software (see pages 4-5 problems. Successful computer systems screens and controlled vocabularies devel- for an announcement of the new member- must be tailor-made to resemble a virtual oped in-house by Carol Bartels, The Col- ship program). And the computing infra- body cast of an organization’s structure and lection’s documentation coordinator, work- structure is constantly being maintained work habits. No two systems are alike— ing in conjunction with registrars, curators, and upgraded by network manager José just as no two organizations are alike. By catalogers, and reference staff. A new web Zorrilla—new servers power the new soft- studying how “off-the-shelf” systems might interface, making all of The Collection’s ware, and in August, a point-to-point laser be adapted to serve organizational needs, records available on the Internet from a sin- system joined the Royal Street and Chartres the Systems Department had gained insight gle query screen, will eventually be released Street locations into a single, seamless net- into how The Collection functioned and as well. Mint has already generated inter- work to make way for an expected increase how it fell short of its goals. But even with national “buzz” and is now being installed in traffic as large image files become a vendor selected and the redesign process at the Archives of Ontario in Canada and increasingly common. While significant commenced, challenges remained. the Netherlands Architecture Institute in amounts of work remain, the public will Fortunately, THNOC’s staff had been Rotterdam. Just as it did in the floppy-disk begin to see the first of these efforts reach thinking ahead. The library catalogers had era, The Historic New Orleans Collection fruition by the late summer of 2005. been creating records in the standard is once again setting the standard for —Chuck Patch MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) cutting-edge museum technology. format for years. Likewise, manuscripts A flood of related activity at The Col- Opposite page: Systems staff —Chuck Patch, catalogers had been creating finding aids lection