Automating the documentation of museum collections

Abstract

Abstract The history of the automation of museum information is full of false starts and false promises. While new information technologies and systems offer great power and new capabilities to museums, the majority of museum information systems are manual or personal, i.e. kept in staff members' heads. Automation is obviously not the solution to all information problems in any organization, but, like any tool, it can be quite useful when used in the proper context. This paper focuses on the automation of information related to the documentation of museums' collections. It discusses some of the history of the automation of collection documentation and some of the major issues involved. The perspective taken here emphasizes the museum as an information system, of which information about collections is one component. The paper also assumes that museum information systems are intended to serve the varied and often conflicting needs of a number of diverse audiences.