1. Last Call for PastPerfect Newsletter Change!
2. Regional Training Sessions
3. Did You Know?
4. Tip of the Month
5. Look Who’s Using PastPerfect…
6. Conference Schedule for 2004
7. Contact us!
1. Last Call for PastPerfect Newsletter Change!
In an effort to conform with recent legislation regarding unsolicited email, Pastime Software is asking all of our subscribers to “officially” register for this newsletter by filling out the online form. We respect your privacy and want to assure you that we will NEVER share your email address or contact information with another organization.
If you have not already subscribed to the newsletter using our online form, please visit www.museumsoftware.com/news.htm to make sure you continue to receive this newsletter.
October 1st is the deadline, please don’t wait until the last minute!
2. Upcoming Regional Training Sessions
San Diego, CA: San Diego Historical Society's Museum of San
Diego History in Balboa Park
September 14, 15 & 16
Richmond, VA: Agecroft Hall
September 21, 22 & 23
Chappaqua, NY: New Castle Historical Society
October 13, 14 & 15
Contact training@museumsoftware.com for more information!
PastPerfect is able to print or send reports in the form of PDF files, with the help of a program called PDF Producer by Data Becker or Adobe Acrobat Standard 5.0 or 6.0. PDF Producer is easy to use and installs itself on your computer as a printer. When you click on the print button in PastPerfect, you are able to select PDF Producer instead of a standard printer, thus generating your documents in a format that is workable for e-mail or posting on a website.
Your PastPerfect reports will be viewable even on computers that do not have PastPerfect installed! PDF Producer works with any documents on your computer whether they are from Word, WordPerfect or PastPerfect, and it is compatible with Windows 2000 and XP computers. Other features included in PDF Producer include the ability to watermark and set security settings for your documents. PDF Producer is available from Pastime Software Company for $49.95. Call our sales office or visit our online store at http://www.museumsoftware.com to order your copy of PDF Producer today!
4. Tip of the Month- Remember to Backup Your Data!!
Making frequent backups of your PastPerfect data and images is an essential component of a good collections management policy. In the unfortunate event of a disaster, having backups of your PastPerfect data and images will save you the time and energy of re-entering information. Because backups are so important, PastPerfect makes them easy to do. Just follow these steps: to make a backup of your data to your hard drive, go to the Utilities tab and click the Backup button. Then click the Backup data to Hard Drive button, select Backup All Data Files, and click Start. It only takes a few moments for the backup to complete, and since it is a compressed file, it takes up very little space on your hard drive. We suggest making backups to your hard drive every day that you add or edit records in the program.
If you have images in PastPerfect, you will also need to back those up by clicking the Backup button and clicking the Backup Image files button. We suggest making backups to removable media, such as floppies, zip disks, or CDs. To do this, minimize PastPerfect and find out what drive letter to use by clicking on My Computer. Your Floppy disk drive will be A:\, your Zip Disk drive will be another letter as well as the CD drive. Once you have this information, maximize PastPerfect and change the image backup folder to be the letter of the type of disk you are using (for example, A:\ would be your floppy drive). Once the Image Backup Folder path reflects the correct media type, click on Copy Image Files to Remote Drive, Folder or CD-R under Backup Type. Then click on Copy All Images and Start Procedure.
It is also very important to remember to keep a backup stored on disk at a remote location, just in case. Should disaster strike in the form of a hard drive crash or something worse, you can restore your data and images back into the program and avoid having to re-enter all your records.
5. Look Who’s Using PastPerfect… The Booth Western Art Museum
Special thanks to James Burns, Director of Curatorial Services, for writing this month’s installment of Look Who’s Using PastPerfect! The Booth Western Art Museum is located in Cartersville, GA, 40 miles northwest of Atlanta. This 80,000 square foot facility opened in August 2003, with main galleries featuring contemporary Western American art. Other galleries feature Western movie posters and Western illustration. Sagebrush Ranch is an interactive gallery where children of all ages can learn about art and Western America. The Museum’s Special Exhibit Gallery hosts three to five temporary exhibitions per year. A multimedia theatre shows an orientation film “The American West.”
The Museum was founded in the summer of 2000, and shortly thereafter, James Burns, Director of Curatorial Services, identified PastPerfect as their collections management software. They started off with 2-5 users, but that soon changed; as the Museum grew, so did its use of Past Perfect. It proved to be a useful tool in creating the permanent exhibitions for the new museum.
The once-small research library and archives at the Museum began to grow as well. Staff wanted to find a software package that could accommodate the library and archives as well as collections, so researchers could identify all of the Museum’s resources on a particular topic with the click of one button. About that time, Mr. Burns was in contact with PastPerfect about the development of a MARC-compatible component for the library database. He volunteered the Booth Museum as a beta site for testing EZMARC, which proved successful, as the Museum was one of the first to purchase and use EZMARC. Today, nearly 10,000 MARC records have been imported into the database.
The Museum’s newest project involves using Virtual Exhibit to make the Museum’s collections and library/archival materials available online via its web site. Initially designed to create online exhibitions, which the Museum also plans to do in the future, Virtual Exhibit has proven useful as a means of providing access to collections information as well.
The collections and exhibitions department liked PastPerfect so much that other departments in the Museum began to use it when the building opened last summer. Now, they have over 26 users across all disciplines in the Museum, including the museum store, café, membership, guest services, special projects, administration, education, exhibitions, curatorial, collections, library/archives, volunteers, and soon, development. To learn more about the Booth Western Art Museum, visit their website at http://www.boothmuseum.org/.
Have you ever wondered who else is using PastPerfect? Check out our User List at www.museumsoftware.com/client_list.htm! If you would like your institution added or removed from this list, please email your contact info to brian@museumsoftware.com.
Please visit Pastime Software staff at the following conferences in 2004…
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