PastPerfect software - The Perfect way to catalog archival collections SUNYLA 2016 Conference SUNY Binghamton - University Union 103 Jane Verostek Associate Librarian SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Moon Library

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry or SUNY ESF as it is best known is located in Syracuse, NY and was founded in Although the college has been in place for over 100 years it was part of Syracuse University (S.U.) for a time and it was not until 1948 that the college went from being the New York State College of Forestry at S.U. to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The history of the college library for SUNY ESF and the formation of the college archives reveals that the SUNY ESF college library physically moved a number of times and this may have affected the fact that a formal college archives was not created until that’s 67 years after the New York State College of Forestry at S.U. was created. History of SUNY ESF and the SUNY ESF Archives

SUNY ESF offers undergraduate and graduate degrees with an average of 2,200 students a year that can choose from 24 undergraduate and 30 graduate degree programs such as conservation biology, papers science, forestry and landscape architecture, etc. In Syracuse, NY - SUNY ESF is situated on 12 acres and also has a total of 25,000 acres at the college’s remote campuses - mostly in the Adirondacks in NY. Since the formal opening of the SUNY ESF Archives it has been staffed by a number of part time staff. From 1978 to 1979 the SUNY ESF Archives was staffed by a part time intern and from 1979 to 1981 the archives was staff by a part time archivist and then from 1981 there was a different part time archivist. In 1982 another archivist was hired who worked part time at 50% to 60% and who stayed on until their retirement in History of SUNY ESF and the SUNY ESF Archives

In the fall of 2011 the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry - SUNY ESF Archives and Special Collections closed due to the retirement of the college archivist. From the fall of 2011 to the summer of 2014 I regularly asked our Director of Libraries if I could volunteer to re-open our archives and special collections. At the end of the summer of 2014 I was appointed to spend 30% of my time in the archives and special collections and was given funds ($5,000) to re-open! With the funds I was asked to find an archival management system to catalog our archives, re-stock up on supplies (archival boxes, sleeves, binders) and purchase other items such as an air cleaner. History of SUNY ESF and the SUNY ESF Archives

The SUNY ESF Archives today We have 4 rooms with about 1,800 sq. ft. that houses our archives and special collections.

To help us get organized we chose PastPerfect Our library director and I had heard of the PastPerfect software from colleagues, at conferences, etc. and felt the established software with a reasonable pricing system was right for our collection and budget! The company and software has existed since As of 2016 PastPerfect is used by 9,500+ museums and archives.

Choosing PastPerfect To note we did investigate some open source software options. The one open source software we considered was ArchivesSpace - but the fact that PastPerfect was so established, priced right and offered telephone/ support won us over. Before purchasing I looked at a number of existing PastPerfect client catalogs, contacted existing users to talk about the pros and cons of the software and did a site visit to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse to see the software and talk to the staff before we committed to purchasing it.

Archives and Museums that use PastPerfect PastPerfect has a client list by state and provides links to their online collections databases.

Archives and Museums in NY that use PastPerfect

PastPerfect Prices - To note if you are a member of The AASLH is the American Association for State and Local History you get a discount on PastPerfect’s pricing.

Our Initial Costs for PastPerfect – Fall 2014 We joined AALSH at the Institutional Level for a $ annual fee.

Our Initial Costs for PastPerfect – Fall 2014 $1,294.00

Getting Started with PastPerfect. Our priorities for adding items into PastPerfect include: Finding and cataloging realia - 3 dimensional objects in our archives. Using the archives card catalog to do shelf checks and to inventory and catalog those items found. To create a space in our archives dedicated to realia – 3 dimensional items.

Lessons Learned. After the college archivist retired in 2011 a colleague had our student workers put the information from the archives card catalog into an Excel spreadsheet. It was recommended I load this into PastPerfect as a way of jumpstarting our cataloging. I did upload the spreadsheet into PastPerfect and unfortunately found that many of the records that were created were not real entries. Our past archivist had used the card catalog to write herself notes and many of the card catalog cards did not relate to physical items on the shelf. We are now cleaning up these records in PastPerfect. I think if done properly - you could first enter in information from card catalog cards into Excel and upload the information into PastPerfect and then add in photos and more metadata.

Photography on a shoe string budget.. We decided after looking at a number of PastPerfect client sites that we wanted to be consistent and have the same background. We started off using 2 pieces of black foam-board but the background would show up as dark black sometimes and dark gray sometimes. We also were dealing with bad lighting from the fluorescent lighting in the archives.

. We’ve switched to black felt as our background. Our on campus ITS Instructional Technology Office donated to the archives a photography stand with two flexible light fixtures with LED lighting and an overhead camera mount. We can have the lights directly on an item or we can have the lights bounce off white foam board to reduce glare when photographing items such as dishes, sliver ware, glass trophies, etc. Photography on a shoe string budget..

. Our on campus ITS Instructional Technology Office also donated to the archives a studio light that hangs from the archives ceiling for photographing large objects. We can have the light directly on an item or turn it away from the item with the light bouncing off white foam board - again to reduce glare. Photography on a shoe string budget..

There are 4 categories to add items into PastPerfect Objects – Photos – Archives - Library.

Adding a new item.

Adding a new item requires a 3 part accession number. Our items in the archives did not have formal accession numbers. We tried a number of ways to do accession numbers - for example trying to work with what paperwork we could find to create them - but for many items in or archives - paperwork is incomplete or missing. We decided to start fresh. The first part of our access number is the year we are cataloging the item. The middle number is a collection code. The third number is the numbered items within the collection.

Adding a new item requires an Object Name. The Object Name or Lexicon comes from The Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging by Greeno, Blackaby, and the Nomenclature Committee. The nomenclature is built into PastPerfect and the Object Name-Lexicon database consists of 11 main categories, over 100 sub-categories and 8,500 preferred object names, PastPerfect is very flexible and you can add in additional object names - lexicons.

Lexicon – Object Name Database.

Adding a new item. Along with a built in link to the lexicon - object name database - PastPerfect provides a link to the Art & Architecture Thesaurus AAT Website. This is a great reminder to use this database to find appropriate terminology The AAT website –-database has about 131,000 terms that describe art, architecture, decorative arts, material culture, and archival materials.

Adding Objects. The metadata options on the left change with each category. For objects we usually add in: Dimensions-People-Subjects-Inscription-Makers Mark

Objects - People.

Objects - Dimensions..

Objects - Inscriptions.

Objects - Source.

Objects – History.

Adding Photographs.

Photographs - Metadata.

Photographs- Adding in Bios.

Photographs - Adding in Bios within a record.

To note on the main welcome screen you can click on People Biographies to edit, add or delete bios.

People Biographies.

Adding Archives.

Archives - Metadata.

Archives - Metadata.

Adding items in the “Library”.

Adding items in the “Library”.

Metadata Field Comparisons.

Our Realia and 3 Dimensional objects were scattered throughout our collection - loose on bookshelves, etc. As objects have been added into PastPerfect they have been properly housed and put in labeled archival boxes.

. Taking the next step. In the Spring of 2016 we purchased PastPerfect’s online hosting to create an online collections database for the public to use. The cost for the initial online setup was $ and the cost for the first year of annual hosting by PastPerfect was $ We were able to have the $285 and $440 (a total of $725) greatly discounted down to a total of $404 PastPerfect was running a special and were able to use our American Association of State and Local History discount.

Our PastPerfect Online Collections Database.

Our PastPerfect Online Collections Database.

Our PastPerfect Online Collections Database.

Our PastPerfect Online Collections Database.

Pros of PastPerfect Reasonably priced (discounts and special pricing is available). Easy to install and use. Great print and online resources for help. Able to grow with your needs by purchasing software add-ons. Ability to give back reports and statistics.

Thank you - Questions? PastPerfect software - The Perfect way to catalog archival collections SUNYLA 2016 Conference SUNY Binghamton - University Union 103 Jane Verostek Associate Librarian SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Moon Library