Gestion Informatique Documentaire

Online project at the Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery in Plymouth, England.

Can you introduce yourself ?
My name is Nicki Thomas.  I am the Documentation & IT Officer at the Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery in Plymouth, England

Can you make a brief description of your museum ?
We are a medium sized government run museum.  We have collections in Human History, Natural History and Art (of which the Cottonian Collection is of Designation status).

Do you have specific projects at the moment and how the online project is part of it ?

1. 2008 – St Aubyn Collection.  There will be an online presence through the E-catalog module.
2. 2007 – Barstow Minerals Collection will have all data on SNBase updated and new records attached.  All the objects in this collection have been digitised and are currently being attached to the database.  We are currently working on the layout of this E-Catalog and will plan to export 1,500 records and upload to the Web in 2008.
3. 2003- World Cultures Collection has also been digitised with all records having a digital image attached.  All data on Micromusée was updated and new records entered.  At the moment we only have around 70 items in the E-catalog but plan to add more in the future.  There are around 4,000 items in this collection.
4. Pre 2003 – Cottonian Collection Kiosk.  This kiosk is situated in the Cottonian Gallery for visitors to access on a standalone PC.

With all of these projects, once the data is clean and tidy the export can then run fairly smoothly.

How did you handle the online project ?
These projects are funded and have deadlines to meet. The outcome for the above projects was to have an online presence.  We used the E-Catalog module as we had already purchased it and it was a quick way to get our collections online in a rather simple way.  We had previous training from Mobydoc, when we started using the module, it became clear on how to use it.  It is a great module that is relatively easy to use.  It is also simple and easy to use for the Public.  We had continuous support when needed from Mobydoc and also from our own internal ICT departments.