New Implementer Jump Start
- Jessi Weithman
Introduction
CollectionSpace is an open-source collections management application that meets the needs of museums, historical societies, and other collection-holding organizations. CollectionSpace is designed to be configurable to each organization’s needs, serving as a gateway to digital and physical assets across an institution. The software is freely distributed via open-source licensing, and an active developer community ensures that CollectionSpace is continually improving.
Our dynamic software is comprised of a suite of modules and services that serves as a flexible core of collections information from which interpretive materials and experiences - from printed catalogs to mobile gallery guides - may be efficiently developed. The extensible architecture allows it to be connected with other open-source applications already in use by the cultural sector including those for archival management, online exhibition creation, and digital asset management.
CollectionSpace Functionality Overview
The Functional Design Home page is where you will find requirements documented and discussed. Functional highlights include:
Acquisition | Documenting and managing the addition of objects and associated information to the collections of the organization, including their potential accession to the permanent collections. |
Cataloging | The compilation and maintenance of key information, formally identifying and describing objects. |
Data import/export | CollectionSpace import functionality supports importing files in XML (Extensible Markup Language), or via the CSV Import Tool. Data can be exported via our library of reports; ad hoc reporting from search results, or through an integration with the Jasper reporting engine. |
Data entry templates | Provides the ability to create records from existing records or to pre-defined templates for specific data entry needs. |
Hierarchies | Users may create hierarchical relationships among terms in a controlled vocabulary (e.g. United States of America > New England), or among objects (e.g. a chess set and its individual pieces). |
Loans in/out | Managing and documenting the borrowing and lending of objects for which the organization is responsible for a specific period of time and for a specific purpose, whether exhibition/display, research, conservation, education, or photography/publication. |
Location and movement | Management and documentation of information concerning the current and past locations of all objects or groups of objects in the organization's care to ensure that the organization can locate any object at any time. |
Media handling | Provides the ability to upload a media file to the system or to link to a media file stored in an outside digital asset management system. |
Object entry/exit | The management and documentation of the receipt of objects (and associated information) which are not currently part of the collections as well as the management and documentation of objects leaving the organization's premises. |
Reports | Reports are defined and installed in the system via integration with LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License) JasperReports. Custom reports may be created using JasperReport's Jasper Studio client application software. This software is downloadable for free from the JasperSoft website but is GPL (General Public License) licensed, and is therefore not included with a standard CollectionSpace installation. |
Roles and permissions | The management of system access, including read/write permissions for procedural, object, and organizational records. |
Structured dates | Provides a much greater degree of freedom when adding dates with beginning and end ranges and degrees of certainty. This enhanced date handling function provides the ability to tie objects to eras or periods rather than to specific dates. These dates are particularly useful for cataloging activities and the retrospective conversion of aging documentation. |
Sample Implementation Plans / Checklists
Configuration and Data Maps / Data Dictionaries
Each procedure and vocabulary in CollectionSpace (e.g. acquisition, cataloging, place, etc.) has a core schema that defines what fields are included in the procedure, and how the fields behave. These schema can be configured in many ways to match the needs of implementing institutions. A key activity during any implementation is the creation of a data map, which shows how fields in your current system align with those in CollectionSpace. To assist with the creation of your data map, the linked page includes an XLS version of the schema for each procedure and vocabulary that you can use to map your own system requirements.
Domain Extension Sets and Community of Practice Profiles
A domain extension is a group of fields added to a procedure or authority to support the work of a specific community of practice, such as fine art or anthropology. Extensions to more than one procedure or authority are referred to collectively as extension sets. A group of procedures, authorities, and domain extensions combined to support the work of a specific community of practice are referred to as that community's profile. Often, procedures and authorities within the profile may be configured, or slightly changed, to better support the needs of that community of practice. Configuration and data maps marked profile include the domain extensions, may have some field names changed, and may have some default fields hidden if they do not pertain to the community.