Middleton Museum

[Tedsgrandson]

Hi Guys:

I just thought that I'd mention that I was in the Memory Lane Museum on July 9 on my way back from Digby and Yarmouth (Matt - I saw your name in the book just a few spaces ahead of me when I was signing in. Sorry I missed you). Anyway, I was talking with Terry and with Janet, and they were telling me that they have a lot of pictures and things that they would like to have digitalized. Janet was saying that a lot of their pictures are starting to fade. Also, they have some old newspapers that should be better preserved. I thought that maybe there are some among us that might be able to help with this.

Jim Joyce

[stem]

This conversation has come up a few times before but gone nowhere. For example:
http://www.dardpi.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92
http://www.dardpi.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21

I have also not done anything that I had planned to do either regarding software to catalogue the museum because I don't want to do the job twice. Let me explain. I figure that to do the job properly we should have someone on board at the acrchivist or curator level who understands what is required to do this job right and do it once. Anyone with that level of expertise would already have a preference as to which type of software they would use and the chances are that it wouldn't be whatever I might have already picked or started with. Hence, I don't want to do it twice.

Can we round up someone who has the experience and knowledge to even advise and guide us on how to best do this?

[downeastrailfan]

If the folks at the museum were willing to loan out photos and newspapers, I could do some scanning. I'm not equipped to scan slides.

[stem]

So what you mean is if you could take a bunch of stuff home lets say on the weekend and scan it at your place?

Do you know anything about setting up a system for a museum to properly record the museum's assets?

[downeastrailfan]

So what you mean is if you could take a bunch of stuff home lets say on the weekend and scan it at your place?

Do you know anything about setting up a system for a museum to properly record the museum's assets?

Yes, or send a package through the mail.

All I know is that each artifact is catalogued in a program, while the actual item is marked with an accession number. I am not familiar with any accession programs.

[stem]

Do you think there's any chance that yourself, someone else or a group might head down for a weekend as a work project?

Alternatively does anyone have any ideas about putting a computer and a scanner in place and get it working so the museum staff might even learn how to do it? I know that Janet had alluded to computers that might already be available through donations so I don't believe the hardware to get started would actually be a problem. It boils down to the availability of skilled labour to set up such a system and get the museum going on it. It also required that the museum move ahead and get an internet connection installed. I was always hoping that considering what the musem is and how is operates financially that someone like Eastgate would donate an internet connection.

I would also like to discuss the cataloguing program because I know of some software available that can be installed on our wiki/forum server so that the database is actually not on site and available for viewing to qualified viewers on the internet. The data is enetered thorugh either the client end of the software or through a web apge interface.

It's a bit of work to set it up but not anywhere near as much work as would to to have to export the database and try to import back into some other package if the archivist did not want to use it. That's my biggest worry.

Have you got any ideas in this regard Matt?

[downeastrailfan]

I think I'm too far away and lack the technical know-how. It sounds like a project for when you return to the Valley, Steve.

[stem]

Any chance that one of us might be able to recruit such a person even on a short term basis just to act like a consultant to put us on the right path?

That question is open to anyone reading this thread.