1. Regional Training Sessions
2. Free Information Sessions
3. Current Update Available 3.5A8!
4. Tip of the Month
5. Look Who’s Using PastPerfect…
6. Museum Prose
7. Conference Schedule for 2004
8. Contact us!
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1. Upcoming Regional Training Sessions
San Marino, CA: Hosted by the Heritage Square Museum
at the Huntington Library & Botanical Garden
February 24, 25, & 26
Kansas City, MO: Hosted by the Piper Memorial Medical
Museum at Saint Joseph Health Center
March 23, 24 & 25
East Lansing, MI: The Historical Society of Michigan
March 30, 31 & April 1
Tempe, AZ: Arizona Historical Society at Papago Park
April 27, 28 & 29
Aurora, CO: Aurora History Museum
June 9, 10 & 11
Contact training@museumsoftware.com for more information!
Pastime Software is pleased to offer two upcoming information sessions, for those who are interested in learning more about PastPerfect. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet with our staff and see a demonstration of PastPerfect Museum Software, the most widely-used museum software in the world. If you know someone who is interested in attending an Information Session, have them RSVP by calling 800-562-6080 or e-mailing sales@museumsoftware.com.
San Marino, CA: February 23 @ 1:00pm
Hosted by the Heritage Square Museum
at the Huntington Library & Botanical Garden
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108
East Lansing, MI: March 29 @ 1:00pm
The Historical Society of Michigan
1305 Abbot Road, East Lansing, MI 48823
3. PastPerfect Version 3.5- Current Update Available 3.5A8…
New Features now available in our latest update 3.5A8…
We are eager to hear clients’ suggestions and have incorporated the following into our newest version:
* Add choices “Disposed” and “Prop” to
deaccession disposal method list
* Ability to change project name for previously entered
volunteer hours
* Detail information for search terms
* If an individual is selected when browsing the individual
file for duplicates from the add screen that record becomes the current record
* Backup to hard drive includes control file and error
log
* Increase length of title field in deaccession to 150
characters
Don’t forget, if you have suggestions for PastPerfect
improvements, please e-mail them to suggestions@museumsoftware.com. We are
always open to suggestions and eager to hear of ways that PastPerfect can
better serve our users.
4. Tip of the Month- An Introduction to Report Maker
In PastPerfect, the Report Maker tool is incredibly handy in generating specific reports from your data. When you click on the Report Maker button from the reports tab, your first option is to select the database you want your information to come from. Once chosen, click the "Add" button to add a new report and type in a title of your choice. Make sure the title is specific enough that you will know what the report is. Once you have entered a title, a new window will appear asking you to choose a field for your filter statement. This filter decides which records should appear on the report. For example, if you wanted all the records with a description, you would use "Description is not empty" as the filter statement and would choose "description" from the list. Then you would select “is not empty” as your operator. After running the report, you now choose what fields of information you want to see on the report, such as objectid, collection, etc. It is important to remember that the field(s) listed in the filter statement must also be on the field list here. You can select a field by double clicking on it and it will move over to the right side of the screen.
After selecting the fields, you will see the Report Overview screen, which shows you the selected fields, the filter statement, a sort order, and what type of report it will be (form or column). Click on “Run Report” and then “preview.” This should give you the information you want, however it might need to be formatted. To fix it the format, close out of the preview and click on the "edit form" button. This will allow you to further adjust the fonts, sizes, and spacing.
5. Look Who’s Using PastPerfect…
*National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the US National Arboretum*
The US National Arboretum’s National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is one of the largest and most comprehensive Bonsai Museums in the world. The museum began in 1975 with the National Gift from Japan, consisting of 53 bonsai, 6 Suiseki or viewing stones and other related items for their care, to the U.S. in celebration of our Bi-centennial. Since then, the Museum has grown to include well over 150 specimens, on display year round, which have been acquired all in support of the formal display and practice of the art of Bonsai and Penjing. The Museum now has four main areas of focus represented in its collections: trees from Japan, China, North America and viewing stones from all parts the world with every continent represented except Antarctica. The museum began using PastPerfect in 2002 to bring its collection into the digital world, as the collection has now reached critical mass and new donations are being proposed more frequently.
The museum is making steady progress in adapting to the digital age and compiling all of the information associated with the objects within the collection. Extremely helpful is the Digital Imaging module, which is being used to manage the images of inventoried artifacts and archives currently at over 1,700 and growing. This module is also under consideration for the management of the historical slide collection of the arboretum. The Natural History tab is allowing for the first time the expansion of data collected on the viewing stones which was previously not noted. This is helping the Museum staff develop greater interpretive information about this small but growing segment of the collections.
PastPerfect has also allowed the Museum for the first time ever to track incoming and outgoing loans more effectively. This was a major accomplishment for the arboretum to take part in its first ever outgoing loan to the Frederick Meyer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids Michigan. The Loan is expected to arrive back at the U. S. National Arboretum in a matter of weeks and was a tremendous success. While there has been a long standing tradition of incoming temporary loans for exhibit purposes at the museum with the local Bonsai Clubs, they are now able to track more information, all leading to better customer service when they put on new exhibits.
Would you like to know who else is using PastPerfect? Check out our updated User List at www.museumsoftware.com/client_list.htm!
6. MUSEUM PROSE – a new way to manage your Web site
Many museums struggle to keep their Web sites up-to-date with fresh content.
Exhibition calendars, event schedules, school visit information, lecture and
seminar dates and other activities require constant attention to be kept current.
Many museums also strive to continue to add more content to their museum Web
sites to keep their membership and visitors coming back. This includes publishing
images and text about the collection and producing more educational materials.
Museum Prose was built to help large, medium and small museums that need an
affordable, easy-to-use content management system requiring little or no technical
skills to maintain their Web sites. Museum Prose provides online templates
in which text and images may be inserted to create a unique and customized
museum Web site. Its built-in functionality frees up technical staff and allows
museum staff to update the museum Web site. It also simplifies all aspects
of Web site administration because it relieves museums of the need to hire
graphic designers, computer programmers, Web designers, and database managers.
In fact, Museum Prose is like having an automated Webmaster!
The benefits of Museum Prose are numerous:
· No special software is needed to use Museum Prose.
Only a computer hooked up to the Internet is required because the system is
Internet-based.
· Because of its ease of use, Museum Prose allows
a greater number of staff members, including curators, collections managers,
researchers, volunteers and students to maintain content for the museum Web
site.
· A variety of Web templates are made available
to museums for maintaining or creating new content for their Web sites. These
include data & image templates for your institution’s homepage, museum
information (operating hours, admissions, museum shop, staff, etc), contact
information, exhibitions, events, collections, highlights, images, hyperlinks,
and graphics.
· Special tools allow your staff to quickly and
easily define museum Web pages to custom-fit your museum’s content.
· It offers museums a variety of color schemes
and graphical tools to integrate a customized look & feel for your museum
Web site.
· Hosting, off-site storage and back up of the
museum’s Web site content is included.
Museum Prose is a one step solution to building, managing, updating and hosting your Web site. No other special skills, equipment, software or hosting solution is needed.
Go to www.MuseumProse.com to learn more about how you can improve your museum’s Web site. Here you also may sign up for a demo to experience the system firsthand at no cost.
7. Conference Schedule for 2004
Please visit Pastime Software staff at the following conferences in 2004…
Small Museum Association: Ocean
City, MD. February 22 – 24
Tennessee Association of Museums: Memphis, TN. March 17-19
* There will be a session on PastPerfect 3/18 at 3:45pm.
American Association of Museums: New Orleans, LA. May 6 – 9
Florida Trust for Historic Preservation: Delray Beach, FL. May 12 –
14
Association of Indiana Museums: June 21 – 25
American Association for State and Local History: St. Louis, MO. Sept.
29 – Oct. 2
Association of Railway Museums Annual Conference: Ogden, UT. Oct. 13
– 17
Mid Atlantic Association of Museums and Pennsylvania
Federation of Museums & Historical Organizations: Philadelphia, PA. Oct
16 – 18
Address: 300 N. Pottstown Pike
Suite 200
Exton, PA 19341
Website: www.MuseumSoftware.com
Sales & Product Info: 800/562-6080 sales@museumsoftware.com
Support: 800/562-6080 support@museumsoftware.com
Training: 610/304-0973 training@museumsoftware.com
Data Conversions: 253/589-0463 conversions@museumsoftware.com
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