CollectionSpace Observations

I examined a couple of existing items, such as the Lemon. The other tabs (Loan In, Loan Out, Acquisition, Location and Movement, Object Exi, Intake, Group, and Media Handling) are empty, which was somewhat frustrating because you had to be on that page in order to discover this. (Still don’t know what the Lemon was – the Brief Description said “Accessories”, and Responsible Department was Decorative Arts.)

Thought it was interesting how the green tab with the plus sign was perched on top of several categories as a way to add an additional field for that particular category. Its function was instantly recognizable and much more aesthetic than, say, an “add” button or link. Found it interesting that there were so many fields for collecting information about artifact history – I didn’t see that many fields used.

Created a new cataloging records from Template, selected Photograph from Template. Entered information for a standardized image of a player piano. There were some fields that I ended up not using. I went to the next tab, and edited some of the Cataloging information. Some of the fields were hard to distinguish (such as, what is the difference between a Technique and a Technique Type? What does the Role of a Production place mean?) In attempting to add a Production Organization, I found that it automatically searches existing organizations to match (the pseudonym organization I used wasn’t found, and I was given the option to set Default Organization Authority). Retrieving this cataloging information was difficult – it didn’t show up in the Cataloguing on the right. I tried searching for it in Related Cataloging Records, and it appeared there, but grayed out. I’m still not quite sure how to access the Cataloging Record that I tried to add here.