Search Field

• home
• products
  • Vernon CMS
  • - Cataloguing Module
  • - Activities Module
  • - Online Access Modules
  • Vernon Access
• services
  • Support
  • Training
  • Custom Screens
  • Data Conversion
• news
  • News Releases
  • Vernon - What's New
  • Conference Calendar
• clients
• staff
  • Our Mission
  • History
  • Staff
  • About Us
• contact
• user
  • Resources
  • User Forum
  • Downloads
  • Newsletters
• site map

• Home
• Products
• Vernon CMS
• Vernon Cataloguing
• Object File

Vernon Cataloguing

Object File

Object is considered the main file by most institutions. It contains all the records pertaining to objects in your collection and is comprised of fields such as Accession Number, Name/Title, Classification, Artist/Maker, Acquisition Source, Dimensions, etc, i.e. fields that logically describe objects.

There are 340 true fields of data in the Object record. The underlying philosophy in the database design is to first provide a high-level general field for each aspect, and then more precise fields for detailed structured data. For example, materials can be described in a text field as well as - or instead of - being defined using the authority file, by part, with supplementary notes, in a set of associated multi-valued fields.

The Object file is designed to handle all types of items artistic, historic and scientific - in a single database. It is flexible and can be focused and configured to match the needs of specialist collections - such as textiles, archives, natural history, maritime, military, technology, philatelic - with the depth and precision of data that these collections require.

Using the Object File For Registration & Administration

 

The Registration function covers the life cycle of objects from pre-acquisition to de-accessioning. Potential acquisitions may be recorded and tracked through their assessment, recommendation and approvals, to formal accessioning or rejection. Candidates for de-accessioning can be identified and progressed through de-accessioning procedures.

Items' acquisition and accessioning details include the accession number, date, acquisition reason, method, sources and roles, prices and funding, authority, provenance, owners, controller, credit line, name/title, classification, description, number of items, collection, Registrar's notes, and secondary identifiers such as former accession numbers, catalogue numbers and patent numbers.

Other data aspects which are likely to be used by the Registrar include the record status (e.g. Skeletal, Fully Catalogued, Needs Review), re-attributions (preserving details of significant changes in cataloguing), restrictions, copyright, insurance and valuation details. Valuations and insurance histories are preserved. The system sorts these details by date, showing the latest (current) valuation first. Condition and treatments can be recorded by text and/or using keywords. Storage, support, packaging, handling and display requirements can be specified.

For de-accessioned objects you can record their status, reason, method, date, authorisation, recipient, proceeds and replacement objects acquired.

Object Cataloguing

 

Objects may be catalogued at the level of detail required. Any number of names/titles, classifications and textual descriptions can be entered. The generic origin (culture, tribe, school) as well as the primary and secondary details of creation can be recorded in terms of persons and their roles, the dates/periods, places and techniques of production.

Materials, inscriptions, sizes, dimensions and other measurements (using the Measurement tool or simple text), as well as a wealth of physical attributes including shape, colour, surface, sex/gender, age, style decoration, language, script/alphabet, orientation, scale, phase and form are all provided for.

Subject/content can be recorded by relations to Persons, Places, Events and Periods as well as by using an hierarchical subject classification authority (ideal for ICONCLASS, LC, and similar authorities). Similarly, associations can be made between this Object and related Persons, Places, Events and other Objects.

Field collection details include reference numbers, methods of collection, field collector persons and their roles, dates and times, specimen types, latitude, longitude, altitude, depth, map and grid references, habitat, stratigraphy and site details.

Documentation and photographs/audio-visual references relevant to the item are recorded via links to the Documentation and Photo/AV files (See Authority Controls for further details).