PastPerfect Museum Software Newsletter- February
2006
1. New Product!! Get your collections online with PastPerfect-Online!
2. Training Schedule for 2006!
3. Free Updates for PastPerfect Museum Software
4. Tip of the Month- Getting Exhibits of your Collection
Online with Virtual Exhibit!
5. Look Who's Using PastPerfect- *The Putnam County Museum
in Greencastle, IN*
6. Pastime Software Contact Information
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1. New Product!! PastPerfect-Online is now available!
Pastime Software Company is proud to introduce PastPerfect-Online, the
easiest, fastest, and most powerful way to share your collection with
the world. PastPerfect-Online is powered by proven MWeb™ search
technology and is capable of providing online access to hundreds of
thousands of records.PastPerfect-Online is easy
to use. Records are selected by the user, and our publishing wizard
does the rest. PastPerfect-Online even watermarks your images to help
protect your digital assets. The PastPerfect-Online site can be customized
by the user, including uploading a logo or graphic banner at the top
to match your existing site.PastPerfect-Online
is fast. Try searching the Jewish Museum of Maryland's site for "baseball"
or "yarmulke," and you will be amazed at the quick and comprehensive
results. PastPerfect-Online is powerful. Besides
being able to search hundreds of thousands of records quickly, PastPerfect-Online
allows you to create search indexes based on the fields you select.
That means if you are a sports-based museum, you can create search elements
for team names or positions. Likewise, if you are at a local historical
society, you can create search elements for family names, historic structures
and just about anything else that would be relevant to your collection
or area.The Jewish Museum of Maryland has their
PastPerfect-Online site up and running with 50,000 collection records
and 10,000 images. You can visit their online collections by going to:
http://jmm.pastperfect-online.com. Their PastPerfect-Online site
was created using the standard options that are available to all users.
Try out the Keyword Search, the Advanced Search, and the Random Images
and see what you find.Never have so many people
had so much access to your collection for such an affordable price!
You can get more information about PastPerfect-Online by calling our
support office or visiting our website: www.MuseumSoftware.com
2. PastPerfect Training Classes are coming to your area!
The 2006 training schedule is coming together! Below are the first of
the dates and locations to be finalized but there are many more to come!
As more dates and locations are scheduled, they will be added to the
listing. To find out more information about the scheduled training classes
below, or to inquire about possibly scheduling a session in your area,
please contact our Training Coordinator, Amy Dunn, by phone at 610-304-0973
or by e-mail at training@museumsoftware.com.
Weirsdale, FL
Austin Carriage Museum
February 22-24
St. Helena, CA
Hosted by the St. Helena Historical Society at the St. Helena Elementary
School
March 14-16
Memphis, TN
Hosted by Delta Axis
March 21-23
Woodstock, VT
Hosted by the Billings Farm & Museum and Co-Hosted by the Vermont
Museum & Gallery Alliance
March 28-30
Chicago, IL
Hosted by the Cambodian American Heritage Museum
May 9-11
Arvada, CO
Co-hosted by the Arvada Historical Society and the Arvada Center for
the Arts and Humanities at the historic Flour Mill
May 16-18
Indianapolis, IN
Hosted by the Indiana Historical Society and Co-Sponsored by the Association
of Indiana Museums
May 23-25
Great Falls, MT
C. M. Russell Museum
June 6-8
Corsicana, TX
Hosted by the Pearce Collection at Navarro College
June 20-22
Syracuse, NY
Hosted by CXtec
July 18-20
East Lansing, MI
Hosted by the Historical Society of Michigan
July 25-28 (Info Session on the 24th from 1pm to 3pm)
Richmond, VA
Hosted by the County of Henrico Division of Recreation & State Parks
October 31- November 2
Be sure to check out our website at www.museumsoftware.com/training.htm
for additional training dates and other information!
3. Free Updates for PastPerfect Museum Software!
Did you know updates are available from our website for your PastPerfect
Museum Software version 4.0? These free updates are released every two
months or so and are available for download by going to this page on
our website: www.museumsoftware.com/software_updates.htm
. If you would rather receive a free update CD, please contact our Support
Office toll-free, at 800-562-6080 or by e-mail at support@museumsoftware.com.
PastPerfect Version 4- New Update Available 4.0C3!
The new update now available for PastPerfect version 4 is 4.0C3! New
features in this update include:
* Ability to add Multi-media links to Exhibit records
* Add fields: activity, campaign#, campaign name, and pledge# to Excel
export of Donations by Fund or Date Range report
* Add new dues payment interval of "Bi-Annual"
* Add year 2006 to dues and donation summary display
* Command to calculate insured value of all items on an Incoming Loan
* Display message if user attempts to add objectid that exists in deaccession
* Include accession and exhibit records on multimedia links report
* Include insured value of catalog record on the mini screen from Accessions
and Incoming Loans
* In-Kind gifts file is available in report maker
* New export to Excel/HTML option includes unlimited memo data
* New Membership Renewal Report
* New security option to restrict access to the Dublin Core command
at bottom of catalog screen
* Option to add multiple authority file entries to the Author Added
Entry field
* Option to add "title" and "outdate" fields to
outgoing Items on Loan report
* Option to export Dues Receipts by Membership Type report to Excel
* Option to export Pledges by Campaign or Date Range report to Excel
* Save setting for "Type of Search" on Keyword Search Screen
* Allow FTP of a range of selected images folders for PastPerfect Online
* Add move bar to easily re-arrange order of web export fields for PastPerfect
Online
* Option for automatic watermark of images for PastPerfect Online
If you have comments or suggestions for PastPerfect
version 4, please e-mail your ideas to suggestions@museumsoftware.com.
We are eager to hear your comments and learn ways that PastPerfect can
better serve our users.
4. Tip of the Month- Getting Exhibits of your Collection Online with
Virtual Exhibit!
For those PastPerfect users who have purchased Virtual Exhibit, getting
highlights of their collection online is very easy. Virtual Exhibit
is a tool designed to work with PastPerfect that takes the records specified
by the user and creates web pages that can be uploaded to the internet.
While PastPerfect-Online is designed to make the entire collection searchable
online, Virtual Exhibit is a less-expensive option that shows internet
users exhibits or highlights of the collection and entices them to see
more by visiting the museum.
To start out, Virtual Exhibit should be installed to the same folder
as PastPerfect, in most cases, this is C:\PP4 for our version 4 users,
C:\pp3 for version 3.0 or 3.5 and C:\PPS for version 2 or 2.6 users.
Once Virtual Exhibit is installed, the user can then use this tool to
choose what records and images they would like to include in their Virtual
Exhibit site. The user can then further customize their site by changing
the colors, fonts and styles of different aspects of the site layout
including the background, banner, footer, main text, links, and more.
Virtual Exhibit can create a website that includes a home page, search
page, table of contents, exhibit pages, record pages and the enlarged
image pages.
Once the Virtual Exhibit site is finished, the user clicks a button
which creates the html pages for the website. Then the user has the
option to burn the files with these pages to a CD or they can FTP them
up to their existing website directory. The benefit of burning the files
with these pages to CD is that the user can then insert the CD into
any computer and run their Virtual Exhibit site without an internet
connection. This can be used in a gallery as a kiosk or for presentations.
With Virtual Exhibit, the user needs to have their own website already
functioning. If they do not have their own website, we can host their
Virtual Exhibit site for them at www.MuseumResearcher.com
for an annual fee of $289. Please contact our Support Office, toll free
at (800)562-6080 with any questions about Virtual Exhibit!
5. Look Who's Using PastPerfect- *The Putnam County Museum in Greencastle,
IN*
The Putnam County Museum opened its doors in Greencastle, Indiana, in
2003 to preserve and interpret the county's natural, historical, and
cultural heritage. Putnam County, located in west-central Indiana, was
established in 1822 and has preserved much of its rural mid-western
character into the twenty-first century. The county's topography, a
patchwork of fields, woodland, flat prairie, and rolling hills, and
farms of corn, soybeans, hogs, and livestock, is typical of the region.
One third of the county's population of 34,000 lives in Greencastle,
which has a 1903 courthouse with a WWII buzz bomb on the lawn at the
center of an intact commercial square. Greencastle boasts several historic
landmarks: DePauw University, founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College;
Central National Bank, victim of John Dillinger's biggest heist in 1933;
the site of Eli Lilly's (founder of Lilly Pharmaceuticals) first pharmacy
(1861); and the place where William H. Herndon wrote Herndon's Lincoln
in 1887, the first biography of Abraham Lincoln.
The Museum operates in close partnership with local businesses, the
Putnam County Public Library and DePauw University. Museum director,
Stacy Klingler, has taught a 3-week intensive January term course in
museum studies for freshman for the past two years. In January of 2006,
DePauw students got a real taste of the power of material culture to
tell the story of a community with proper research and documentation.
Students took previously uncataloged artifacts from the Museum's collection
through the accessioning process using PastPerfect 4.0 from temporary
custody, through securing the deed of gift, completing the incoming
condition report, and creating a complete catalog record, including
photo documentation. Each student researched their assigned artifact
through the university library, resources in the public library's local
history room, and interviews with local residents. "I had no idea
how much work it would be," commented one student, "but I
learned a lot about huckster wagons and traveling salesmen that I never
would have known." PastPerfect can be a great learning tool to
complement more traditional teaching methods. For 2007, the Museum plans
to have the students go one step further and use Virtual Exhibit to
create a webpage of their hard work.
For more information about the Putnam County Museum, visit their website
at http://www.co.putnam.in.us/Museum
Special thanks to Stacy Klinger, Museum Director, for writing this month's
Look Who's Using PastPerfect feature!
6. Contact Information
Address: 300 North Pottstown Pike, Suite 200 Exton, PA 19341
Website: www.MuseumSoftware.com
Sales & Product Info: 800-562-6080 or sales@museumsoftware.com
Support: 800-562-6080 or support@museumsoftware.com
Training: 610-304-0973 or training@museumsoftware.com
Data Conversions: 800-562-6080 or conversions@museumsoftware.com
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