Mike L. posted: "It bothers me greatly that we don't have a record of our holdings. We should have pictures of each item, along with make, model, s/n and donor info, at the least. ... I urge people to move on this." The VCFed board and I completely agree. It's already underway. Adam has been our greatest asset on this project. For some sick, twisted reason that I don't understand :) he * enjoys * being alone in the warehouse and counting stuff. He already counted our different models of Apple, Atari, and Commodore gear. There are five major benefits to having a proper inventory. In no particular order: we can buy artifact insurance, better evaluate the value of our assets, know what we can deaccession as fundraising, know what we have for exhibits, and clear warehouse space. We also have to attack the library which is mostly boxed up in storage. Jeff and I would love to arrange an inventory weekend when several members show up to work on this and nothing else. It will be important that everyone follow directions :) and not waste time on the minutiae of tiny bits. Over-inventorying is a trap to avoid. We needn't count every joystick, floppy disk, and power cable. Trying to do so would be functionally impossible. Instead, we're counting computers, major peripherals, and "box of TRS-80 software" or whatever the case may be.
On Tue, 28 Nov 2017, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Mike L. posted: "It bothers me greatly that we don't have a record of our holdings. We should have pictures of each item, along with make, model, s/n and donor info, at the least. ... I urge people to move on this."
The VCFed board and I completely agree.
It's already underway. Adam has been our greatest asset on this project. For some sick, twisted reason that I don't understand :) he * enjoys * being alone in the warehouse and counting stuff. He already counted our different models of Apple, Atari, and Commodore gear.
That's good to hear. Is he taking pictures? With pics, you can go back and look at something without having to physically be there. Not out-of-focus cell phone pics, but real SLR pics. And, they could eventually be added to whichever database system we decide to use, if only internally.
Jeff and I would love to arrange an inventory weekend when several members show up to work on this and nothing else. It will be important that everyone follow directions :) and not waste time on the minutiae of tiny bits. Over-inventorying is a trap to avoid. We needn't count every joystick, floppy disk, and power cable. Trying to do so would be functionally impossible. Instead, we're counting computers, major peripherals, and "box of TRS-80 software" or whatever the case may be.
I would be willing to travel for an inventory working weekend. Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
On Nov 28, 2017, at 5:02 PM, Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On Tue, 28 Nov 2017, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Mike L. posted: "It bothers me greatly that we don't have a record of our holdings. We should have pictures of each item, along with make, model, s/n and donor info, at the least. ... I urge people to move on this."
The VCFed board and I completely agree.
It's already underway. Adam has been our greatest asset on this project. For some sick, twisted reason that I don't understand :) he * enjoys * being alone in the warehouse and counting stuff. He already counted our different models of Apple, Atari, and Commodore gear.
That's good to hear. Is he taking pictures? With pics, you can go back and look at something without having to physically be there. Not out-of-focus cell phone pics, but real SLR pics. And, they could eventually be added to whichever database system we decide to use, if only internally.
Jeff and I would love to arrange an inventory weekend when several members show up to work on this and nothing else. It will be important that everyone follow directions :) and not waste time on the minutiae of tiny bits. Over-inventorying is a trap to avoid. We needn't count every joystick, floppy disk, and power cable. Trying to do so would be functionally impossible. Instead, we're counting computers, major peripherals, and "box of TRS-80 software" or whatever the case may be.
I would be willing to travel for an inventory working weekend.
Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
We do have detailed pics I took with a professional Nikon DSLR about 2 years ago. This was before the latest cleanup and reorg. Next time I can get down there, I’ll take a new set Cheers, Corey
On 11/28/2017 4:47 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Mike L. posted: "It bothers me greatly that we don't have a record of our holdings. We should have pictures of each item, along with make, model, s/n and donor info, at the least. ... I urge people to move on this."
The VCFed board and I completely agree.
It's already underway. Adam has been our greatest asset on this project. For some sick, twisted reason that I don't understand :) he * enjoys * being alone in the warehouse and counting stuff. He already counted our different models of Apple, Atari, and Commodore gear.
There are five major benefits to having a proper inventory. In no particular order: we can buy artifact insurance, better evaluate the value of our assets, know what we can deaccession as fundraising, know what we have for exhibits, and clear warehouse space.
We also have to attack the library which is mostly boxed up in storage.
Jeff and I would love to arrange an inventory weekend when several members show up to work on this and nothing else. It will be important that everyone follow directions :) and not waste time on the minutiae of tiny bits. Over-inventorying is a trap to avoid. We needn't count every joystick, floppy disk, and power cable. Trying to do so would be functionally impossible. Instead, we're counting computers, major peripherals, and "box of TRS-80 software" or whatever the case may be.
Any thoughts on which collections management system will be used, and what metadata will be entered for each item? My personal favorite is the open source Collective Access, http://www.collectiveaccess.org/
On 11/28/17 5:08 PM, Martin A Flynn via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Any thoughts on which collections management system will be used, and what metadata will be entered for each item?
My personal favorite is the open source Collective Access, http://www.collectiveaccess.org/
Collective Access is nice. In my day job, I help manage a number of CollectionSpace <http://www.collectionspace.org> installations, if folks are interested in the *other* open source collections management system. :-) Despite my being a lurker in general, if VCF is interested in running either of these, I'd be happy to help, and to pitch in with metadata work that can be done remotely. Brian -- Brian Harrington bharrington@abbistan.net
Collective Access is nice. In my day job, I help manage a number of CollectionSpace <http://www.collectionspace.org> installations, if folks are interested in the *other* open source collections management system. :-) Despite my being a lurker in general, if VCF is interested in running either of these, I'd be happy to help, and to pitch in with metadata work that can be done remotely.
Brian, Thank you for your insight and offer. Also, please introduce yourself :) .... how'd you find us, where you live, what you collect, and so on. -Evan
On Tue, Nov 28, 2017 at 4:47 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Mike L. posted: "It bothers me greatly that we don't have a record of our holdings. We should have pictures of each item, along with make, model, s/n and donor info, at the least. ... I urge people to move on this."
The VCFed board and I completely agree.
Of course we would love to have everything inventoried, and have been doing that slowly over the years, but getting volunteers to help often is followed by the sounds of crickets. Manpower is needed. With our obligations to being docent, reorganizing the warehouse and other VCF stuff, we have little time for doing inventory.
participants (7)
-
Brian Harrington -
corey cohen -
Drew Notarnicola -
Evan Koblentz -
Jeffrey Brace -
Martin A Flynn -
Mike Loewen