What does finished look like?: How to define cataloguing so that KE can be used to evaluate how well your collection is documented. Presented by: Paul Crêtes October 22, 2008

2 History  Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN ) to KE  From collection management to material culture documentation.  Centralization of cataloguing  From 16 cataloguers to 1.5  Elimination of Cataloguers.  From cataloguers to documentalists

3 Defining our Role  What do our visitors expect of us?  Accessability and Research  What does the rest of the institution expect of us?  Internal Survey  What does the Museum Community Expect of us?  In Relation to Common Practices and Standards  What does our government expect of us?  In Relation to the Museum Act

4 Establishing a Baseline by Defining Cataloguing within Artifact Documentation  To meet the expectations of our shareholders: Visitors, Researchers, Institution and Government, the Artifact Documentation Section, commences on April 1 st, 2008 the systematic cataloguing to a minimum level of 5 Points of Access of all artifacts acquired and registered at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.  The 5 Points of Access refer to a documenting of the artifact whereby we respond to a minimum of one field corresponding to the questions of who, what, where, when and how as it relates directly to the artifact.

5 The process  Identifying which KE fields correspond to the 5pts of access  Retrieving the data  Confirming that the 5pts of Access are valid questions for our Database.  Our Status  How the process helps us achieve our goal more rapidly.

6 Which fields correspond to the 5pts of access?

7 Retrieving Data (Setting up search)

8 Retrieving Data (Search)

9 Retrieving Data (Global)

10 Retrieving Data (Non-Verified)

11 Retrieving Data (Verified)

12 How We Now Retrieve the Information

13 Are these valid questions for our Database?

14 Where are we now? (non verified)

15 Where are we now? (verified)

16 Tools that assist us in reaching our goal  Access Levels  Queries based on tasks to find « low hanging fruit. »  Special projects targetting 5pts of access.

17 Tool’s cont’d (Access Levels)

18 Tool’s cont’d (Queries)

19 Tool’s cont’d (Special Projects)  Dates project  Tracking tab project

20 What’s in it for us?  To be able to report on the quantity and quality of the information in the database.  To be able to demonstrate to upper management progress made and progress potential with current work force.

21 Any Questions?