August 2003
Museum Software News: Serving the PastPerfect Software Community
With over 3,000 users worldwide, Pastime Software Company is dedicated to providing a superior product and unparalleled customer support at a price that all institutions can afford!
In This Issue:
PastPerfect Museum Software Newsletter, August-2003
In this issue:
1). PastPerfect Reaches the 3000 Mark
2) New Features in version 3.5A4
3) Did you know?
4) Training and Conference Schedule
5) Tip of the Month
6) Contacting Pastime Software
1. PastPerfect Reaches it 3000th Customer!
Congratulations to Pastime Software Company's 3000th customer, Marian College Library in Indianapolis! The library will receive a copy of Virtual Exhibit as a gift from Pastime Software Company, Inc.
Marian College was founded in 1937 by the Sisters of St. Francis Oldenburg when St. Francis Normal school and Immaculate Conception Junior College merged. This new four-year institution opened its campus on the former James A. Allison estate in Indianapolis. The college library was housed in the mansion house until the Mother Theresa Hackelmeier Memorial Library was built in 1971. The collection includes library and archival materials that relate to the history of the college and the estates of three Indianapolis Speedway founders-James Allison, Carl Fisher and Frank Wheeler. One of the library's goals is to fully catalog the collections and make them more accessible to researchers. Sister Rachel West, collection archivist, said they hope to have the collection online by the college's 75th anniversary. Sister West, Class of 1954 (the last class of all women) and former professor in the history and political science department, enjoys working with the materials that represent the institution's history. She hopes the library archives will coordinate with the Sisters of St. Francis Oldenburg Archives to share their unique collections' information.
We are certain PastPerfect and Virtual Exhibit will help Marion College meet their goals by providing a robust database program and an easy-to-use website creation software.
Please welcome Marian College Library, library director Kelley Griffith, and Sister Rachel West to the PastPerfect family of users.
2. New Features Now Available in our latest update 3.5A4
Here are some of the new features available now to Version 3.0 users in our free web update:
New table and screen for your collection appraisal history
New field "current value max" in all four catalogs to deal with
"value" ranges
Added negative# field to the image information file on the "About Image"
screen
"Medium" field added to the Create Label screen in Exhibits
Increased length of entries in Place authority file to 75 characters
New report listing memberships without any associated Individuals
Provide three custom letter forms for Membership and Individual letters so
you can have multiple custom letterhead, member cards, etc.
You probably know other museums in your area that use PastPerfect, but did you know that Pastime Software Company has clients worldwide? PastPerfect is one of the most widely used collections management databases in the world. Pastime Software Company has clients in Denmark, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Malawi, Africa. In North America, there are museums in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Mexico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, six of the thirteen Canadian provinces and territories, and in all 50 United States.
4. Training & Conference Schedule
Upcoming Training Sessions
Richmond, CA:
Richmond Public Library at the Richmond City Offices, August 19, 20 &
21
Cincinnati, OH:
Historic Southwest Ohio, August 19, 20 & 21
Bangor, ME:
Bangor Museum, September 9, 10 & 11
St. Paul, MN:
Minnesota Historical Society, September 23, 24 & 25
Informational Sessions co-sponsored by the Lower Hudson Conference
Westchester County Records Center, Elmsford, NY, August 25
Dutchess County Historical Society, Poughkeepsie, NY, August 26
Upcoming Conferences
Please visit us at our booths at the following conferences:
mda trade fair, Winchester, UK, September 10-12
AASLH Annual Meeting 2003, Providence, RI, September 17-20
Mountain-Plains Museums Association Annual Conference, Golden, CO, October 7-10
Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums Annual Meeting, Newark, NJ, October 11-15
Southeastern Museums Conference Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL, October 22-25
Association of Midwest Museums Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI, November 5-8
New England Museum Association Annual Conference, Mystic, CT, November 12-14
Browsing your data!
In Version 3, PastPerfect users can change the browse screens of their collections and membership catalogs. In the Setup tab at the Main Menu, go to the Browse button. Then choose the catalog where you want to customize the browse screen. If you want to see selected fields in browse in the order you determine, select the "Clear all Fields" button. Now you can build your browse screen as you want it. In the Order column, give the field you want to see on the left a number 1, the next field a 2, etc. replacing the 0s. You are setting the order of the fields you want to see and selecting which fields you want. If you do not want to see a field, do not replace the 0. If at any time, you want to browse all fields, you can always reset your browse screen to see all of the fields.
You can also allow editing of records in the browse screen. This is a great time-saving feature, but please take care. You do not want to mistakenly edit or delete data.
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