SAA Student Chapter Event

Behind-the-Scenes at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

November 8, 2002

Carnegie Museum of Natural History –

Bernadette Callery, Museum Librarian

Tim Pearce, Assistant Curator, Mollusks

Robin Panza, Collection Manager, Birds

• Analysis of knowledge management requires discerning patterns of relationships involving people, workflow and records
• Techniques used to identify & interpret relationships –
  ex. Archivists use records as evidence of activity and when making selection decisions for appraisal
• Consider:
  • Audience
  • Ownership of information > the nature of the institution, traditions
  • Staff organization and structure
  • Workflow
• Museum archives are resources that are created & maintained by opposing staff communities
• 3 types of museums:
  • Art
  • Natural History
  • History
• The challenge of knowledge management is the discovery of the traditions of internal uses and the management of collection information
• 2 types of collection records:
  • Accession record
  • Item-level catalog record
• Museum collections are formed from pre-formed collections, acquired through purchase, gift or exchange
• An example of an accession record with associated donor card
  • Ledger catalog contains the following item-level catalog headings: Name, Number of Specimens, Horizon, Locality, Collector, Date of Collection, Remarks and Department, Accession, Original Numbers
• "Field notes" and donor correspondence can contain additional information that was not included in the original accession record
• Other types of collection records > specimen labels
  Label information must be current and accurate
• Some of the information specified in collection records is discipline-specific
• It is important to standardize content and facilitate access to collection information for users through a web-based catalog and/or paper-based records
• Locality information (specifying where & when) is essential documentation that should be standardized