From: Michelle Gobert <gobert@frontier.com> Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2018 09:59:18 -0500 Message-ID: <CADzNhJOJjxwJEpuQ5DgkVnJG-mH4FTAO19Z=v5W=naYGpQnj9Q@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: Collection Management & Public Access software/application
Hi all,
We are using both PastPerfect and Omeka. I really like Omeka for its ease
of use and controlled vocabulary plugins for volunteer projects. I did
figure out how to export from PastPerfect and import them into Omeka.
Jen, next time I export a PastPerfect collection and import it into Omeka,
I can jot my steps down for you. My work flow consists of adding items to
PastPerfect and then exporting the collection to Omeka. ( I'm not sure how
long we will continue to maintain two databases. It's just one of those
things we do since our original workflow was PastPerfect and it cost us
quite a bit of $$. ) If you have specific questions about the
export/import process, feel free to email me directly. My email is listed
below.
Katie, I highly recommend Omeka for your situation. It would allow your
photo collections to be online and yet your three seasonal employees could
access the collections and metadata from anywhere they have internet access
.
The problem I ran into (but solved it) was that we wanted our "collections"
to be harvested by RecollectionWisconsin. But we couldn't afford the cost
per collection (since in PastPerfect our collections total about 50) Once
I realized this was a semantics issue and not a metadata issue, I simply
created 5 harvestable collection headings on Omeka and the PastPerfect
Collection title is included in Omeka as another field.
Our Omeka interface can be found at http://www.crandonpl.org/archives/ if
you want to take a look.
Let me know if you have any more questions! I'm interested in helping more
organizations discover the benefits of Omeka!
-Michelle Gobert
Crandon Area Historical Society
gobert@frontier.com
On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 10:01 AM, Kathryn Otto <kathryn.otto@uwrf.edu>
wrote:
> 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 thei
r
> 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 archiv
al
> *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 littl
e
> 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-tim
e,
> seasonal employees work off laptops with Google Drive as our sort of shar
ed
> 'server.' Because of this, we only use one computer to catalog, but I wan
t
> 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
>