Replies

  • Megan Ross January 30, 2018 at 1:34pm

    Hello everyone

    As an aside to this post, are there any other Collection Management Systems that you can recommend? We have PastPerfect but are exploring other options, including Vernon

    Megan Ross

    Archives Manager

    Marlborough Museum (NZ)

    • Lisa O'Neill > Megan Ross October 22, 2018 at 3:52pm

      Hi Megan, how did you go with Vernon, was it implemented or did you go another option?

      I am also looking at Vernon and EMu but was wondering if there was anything else out there.

      Kind regards,

      Lisa O'Neill
      Sealy Archives

    • Megan Ross > Lisa O'Neill October 23, 2018 at 7:41am

      Hello Lisa, We looked at how it was used at Nelson and felt that it was too complex for our volunteers. Some of the process' seemed unnecessarily complex (eg attaching images to a record) however this may have been just the version we looked at. We still have issues with PastPerfect running on Visualfoxpro so are hoping that when they finally go cloud based this will sort itself out. In the mean time it still seems to be working.

      Im still interested in other options too

      cheers

      Megan

  • Catherine Hall January 30, 2018 at 10:53am

    Hi Alister,
    Thanks very much for the information!
    Will explore further.
    All the best,

    Regards,

    Catherine

  • Alister Bennie January 29, 2018 at 11:10pm

    Hi Catherine,

    I have been using eHive to catalogue items for a historical society. I know that the Royal Historical Society of Victoria uses it and they recommended it. There are a few problems with it (eg. sometimes I have had trouble uploading images -  you have to try it a few times) but I have found it relatively easy to use and it works well with the society's collection as it is rather small. One of the reasons why the society chose it was because it works well with small museum and historical society collections. When cataloguing an item you can choose which metadata fields to enter (not all of the fields are compulsory which is good).

    Whilst doing research for which collection management software to choose, I came across a fact sheet which listed these key features of eHive:

    - Catalogue collections using screens for Art, Photography and Multimedia, Archives, History, Natural Science, Archaeology, and Library items.

    - Publish collections online or keep them private.

    - Web visitors can tag and comment on published records.

    - Create communities to link collection items from many collections.

    - Build branded websites using integration with WordPress, a popular web content management system.

    In terms of pricing, you pay for the amount of storage space and approximate number of images which are going to be catalogued, and you can choose either a 1 year or 5 year licence. For example, 500 MB and 2,000 images is US$99 for a one year licence. The pricing is listed on the eHive website.

    Overall, in terms of user experience, I think it has worked well in terms of the society's needs.

    Hope that helps,

    Alister

  • Catherine Hall January 26, 2018 at 5:07pm

    Thanks very much Chelsea,

    I will email you shortly for the screen shots.


    Regards,

    Catherine

  • Chelsea Renshaw January 25, 2018 at 5:14pm

    Kia ora Catherine,

    I work as Assistant Librarian at the Walsh Memorial Library at Museum of Transport and Technology in Aotearoa/NZ and we use both eHive and Vernon CMS. Vernon is a very flexibile system, we use the customised Library screen for both our Library and archival collections. It takes some getting used to if you are more familiar with Library or Archival systems as it is very oriented towards the item level record. I work in the system on a daily basis and think it is great for being so customisable. I would be happy to email you screenshots to show example records if you would like.  

    In terms of getting our collections online, we are soon switching to Vernon Browser because of the ability for the Browser product to live update from Vernon. EHive requires an upload each time you want to add  records online. There is a cost involved with each upload and because we were doing multiple uploads a year we have been able to justify the upfront cost of Browser. If you will only be uploading in 1-2 batches a year it is great.  EHive also adds your content to a network in the GLAM sector which is a great positive for users in my opinion. 

    Sales support is always fantastic, they have always provided us with useful training and are available on phone to run you through anything you need a refresher on. The help function in the system is also very detailed. 

    Feel feee to email me on chelsea.renshaw@motat.org.nz or we can continue the discussion in this forum!

    Chelsea 

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