2. Free Information Session!
Pastime Software is offering a Free Regional Information Session for those
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 interested
in attending an Information Session, have them RSVP by calling 800-562-6080
or e-mailing sales@museumsoftware.com.
Lake Geneva, WI: November 8, 2004 @ 1:00 pm
Hosted by the Geneva Lake Museum
255 Mill Street, Lake Geneva, WI
3. Upcoming Regional Training Sessions
Chappaqua, NY: New Castle Historical Society
October 13, 14 & 15
Lake Geneva, WI: Geneva Lake Museum
November 9, 10 & 11
Warner, NH: Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum
November 15, 16 & 17
Contact training@museumsoftware.com for more information!
4. New Employee Joins the PastPerfect Support Team!
Pastime Software Company has a new Support Specialist to answer your PastPerfect
questions. Joshua K. Blay comes to us with a BS in History and a minor in
Music Literature from the State University of New York at Oenonta, as well
as a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
He has also been a long time volunteer at the Cortland County Historical Society,
one of our PastPerfect users. Joshua looks forward to assisting you with your
technical and collections management questions.
5. Tip of the Month- Remember to Backup Your Data!!
Due to some calls we have received at the Support Office this month, we have
chosen to re-run this tech tip from last month. Please, remember to make frequent
backups of your data and images.
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.
6. Look Who’s Using PastPerfect… The Tampa Bay
History Center
Special thanks to Susan Brooks, Registrar, for writing this month’s installment
of Look Who’s Using PastPerfect! “The Tampa Bay History Center is
located at 225 South Franklin Street Tampa, Florida. The downtown Tampa location
is perfect site for the Tampa Bay History Center as so much of the early history
of the area occurred in or near the area. The Tampa Bay History Center collects,
maintains, stores, and exhibits material concerned with Historic Hillsborough
County, which in the present day would encompass 15 Florida counties.
In accessioning and retrieving information for our organization, PastPerfect
has proved to be a very useful and effective tool. There are many great features
on the Past Perfect software. One of the most useful features of PastPerfect
is the imaging software. The ability to zoom in on an item, to discern condition,
or to enhance the description is so easy to access. No extra tools are necessary.
The image software in PastPerfect does more than simply store the image of
the item for retrieval, when the page is pulled up it also provides a fast
and efficient way to retrieve the images for other uses. At the History Center,
I am often called upon to provide images for publication both in-house and
for outside interests. The easy retrieval of the images relieves the necessity
to re-scan the material thus increasing efficiency.
There are many features, which make PastPerfect the software of choice for
the Tampa Bay History Center and the software that we whole-heartedly recommend
to other museums and institutions.” To learn more about the Tampa Bay
History Center, visit their website at http://www.tampabayhistorycenter.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.
7. Conference Schedule
Please visit Pastime Software staff at the following conferences in 2004…
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