Collection Management package

On this page you will find information about ComMaat’s Collection Management package. With this application it is possible to manage (museum) collections digitally. This can be done on a computer but also on a smartphone (ideal for viewing data en route or as you are walking through the storage rooms).

With the Collection Management package a large variety of collections can be managed. It is done by entering the objects and the relevant data. For each object a file (record) with various tabs is available.

Follow the link Overview tabs for a detailed overview of all the different tab pages.

To help you enter, search, print and publicise object data on the internet there are two different sections in the programme besides the tab pages.

Terminology management in order to centrally control the various terms you have chosen to be in the drop down lists with the objects.
Address management for administration of the addresses you use with the objects.

Search options

Objects are selected/searched based on the information that was entered concerning the objects. In the Collection Management application you can:

Search based on inventory number, object name, category (keyword) or location.
Search based on more than one keyword.

Terminology management

You choose the keywords needed to describe your object from one of the many dropdown lists. A handy tool to manage these lists can be found at terminology management.

Target audience Galemus Collection Management

The Collection Management application can be used by anyone who wants to keep track of their collection digitally. As long as you do not intend to enter more that 10,000 objects, the application will work easily. The aim is to provide a customized and user friendly alternative for the systems used by large museums. And one that is affordable.

Standardisation

The Collection Management application contains many ways of describing an object. That includes the (minimal) eight fields as mentioned in the CIDOC standard (Comité International pour la Documentation).
Another standard that is used is Dublin Core. With this standard fifteen elements are described in an attempt to create a standard for disclosure of your collection on Internet (for others to see). The Dublin Core is still in development.

* The CIDOC is part of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). It represents the interests of museums in the area of documentation.
* Dublin Core is a standardised method of metadata. Metadata is descriptive information about an object or source. Metadata has existed since collections have been organised and displayed. Nowadays it is usually associated with data on the internet. Internetpages are also provided with metadata.

Pros and Cons of digital Collection Management

If you are involved professionally in the management of collections, you will know about the problems that occur. Larger organisations employ staff to deal with the problems but for smaller organisations it is often trial and error because of "untidy" processing.

The User’s Friend
Every producer of collection Management software claims user friendliness. If you have used a few you probably have found there are still many difficulties. In fact ComMaat’s package was designed exactly because museum staff wanted something more user friendly. Let’s state it carefully, I hope that this collection Management package is user friendly enough.

"Untidy" input
Input of data needs to be consistent and as uniform as possible. Our experience is that this is especially hard when different people enter object data over longer periods of time. And this is not only due to spelling mistakes (though they can cause quite a problem), but one person will have a slightly different description from an other person (is it gold or royal gold, painting or portrait, depot 1 or depot-1.) In order to standardize we use drop down lists of options ( see picture).

For all drop down menu’s you can determine what is in them yourself using Terminology management. Also you can simply use an international standard such as AAT.