From: Kathryn Otto <kathryn.otto@uwrf.edu> Subject: RE: Collection Management & Public Access software/application Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2018 15:01:43 +0000 Message-ID: <DM5PR03MB289002EF5A975591BD0325F8EBD00@DM5PR03MB2890.namprd03.prod.outlook.com>
Hi Katie,
We are using PastPerfect for our photographs and like it for that. I have found it good for photographs, and we can identify the collection (in the Collection Note) as well as the individual image. We plan to use their online version when we have enough of the catalog records in reasonable shape. ;-)
You are right that PP is not good for archives. Since it was designed by museum people, primarily for museum objects, it tries to shoe-horn archival collections into the single-object style used for museum items--doesn’t work very well. I tried to put some of our digitized letters into PP and gave up; it was taking too much time to figure it out, time that I didn’t have.
I have not used Omeka, but UW-Parkside uses it for their digital collections: https://archives.uwp.edu/. You might want to talk to their archivist, Melissa Olson (olsonm @ uwp.edu). They are quite happy with it.
Kathryn Otto
UW-River Falls
From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Katie Kirby
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 1:35 PM
To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: Collection Management & Public Access software/application
Hi all!
Does anyone have any experience using programs like CollectiveAccess or Omeka? I'm looking at options for how to manage our collections and make them (primarily our photo archives) more accessible online and am a little lost.
There are so many options: PastPerfect Online, Recollection Wisconsin, CollectiveAccess, Omeka, and others I'm sure. What do you use and why do you like it? What don't you like about it? What does it cost you annually?
We currently have PastPerfect and I'm not a big fan of how it handles archives - feels very clumsy. We have about 50 photos on Recollection Wisconsin, which is great for our highlights, but not our entire collections. I like the idea of web based platforms as our three part-time, seasonal employees work off laptops with Google Drive as our sort of shared 'server.' Because of this, we only use one computer to catalog, but I want all of them to be able to remotely. (Sidenote, I've been thinking about trying to put our PP5 files on Google Drive so that all our laptops could access the data files... would that work?)
Would appreciate some discussion.
Thanks! Katie