Hi William,
Our launching of the Cultural District Library Consortium system was greatly
facilitated by the Museums' close relationship with Texas Christian
University. In many ways, it was a perfect match. The TCU art department
has always relied on the museums as teaching venues, and I worked at TCU for
a year, so I knew all the key players on the tech services staff. In the
early stages of planning, we also knew that TCU would be launching a new
graduate program in art history and knew that they would be depending on the
museum libraries to bolster the program. So all the players had something
to offer each other. I think the museum libraries always wanted a
consortial catalog, even if we had hosted it at one of museums without TCU,
but our existing relationship with TCU made our final decision an obvious
one. Long story short, having a solid relationship with your consortial
partners is one of the key ingredients. All parties need to feel like they
are gaining something from the arrangement.
The benefits of our cooperative arrangement with Texas Christian University
have far outweighed any disadvantages. Early on, we had a consultant
compare the costs of purchasing a new system versus sharing the system at
TCU, and the cost savings we gained via using the system at TCU made it an
attractive choice. You've probably heard stories of what nightmares library
systems can be, so having access to a systems librarian at TCU to take care
of the nuts and bolts was also a clear advantage. We are so lucky to have a
responsive librarian at TCU who works very hard to keep us happy. And
having access to a systems librarian who has already been through the
process of loading, translating, mapping, and massaging library data is also
a priceless asset. I also think that the nature of the museum libraries'
collection makes setting up a consortial catalog a bit easier: our subject
areas are complementary, so there's very little overlap. Because there is
little duplication between our collections, we chose not to tackle merging
our holdings into single bib records in situations where we had the same
title. DRA, our library system hosted at TCU, would probably not be my
first choice, but as you know, a perfect system has yet to be created. To
DRA's credit, it is a system that is very friendly to consortial
environments: I know of several DRA consortial installations that are still
going strong, most notably the Fenway Libraries consortium
(http://taos.flo.org/html/mfa/welcome.html). Now that school has started
back up at TCU, one disadvantage occurs to me: when your system is hosted on
a busy university network, sometimes response times are slow (we connect to
TCU via the Internet) during the fall and spring when students saturate the
network.
Of course there are other advantages to consortia, like group purchasing of
databases and other subscriptions. We have yet to take advantage of that,
but we hope to in the future, either with TCU or just among the museum
libraries.
Anyway, something to chew on. Let me know if I can answer any other
questions.
________________________________________
Sam Duncan
Acting Librarian
Amon Carter Museum
3501 Camp Bowie Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX 76107-2695
(817) 738-1933 ext. 245
(817) 377-8523 fax
http://www.cartermuseum.org
________________________________________
All opinions are my own and not those of my employer.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Peniston [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 5:04 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Automation
>
> If I remember correctly, the Indianapolis Museum of Art is automating its
> collection through the Indianapolis Public Library; the Baltimore Museum
> of
> Art and the Walters Art Gallery are automating through Johns Hopkins; and
> the Amos Carter Museum, the Kimball Art Museum, and the Modern Art Museum
> of
> Fort Worth are automating through Texas Christian University. How are
> these
> cooperative automation projects progressing? Are there other such projects
> out there? I ask because The Newark Museum and the New Jersey Historical
> Society have begun discussions with the Newark Public Library and Rutgers
> University about the possibility of automating through one of them. What
> are
> the advantages and disadvantages of cooperative automation projects. All
> feedback would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks.
> William A. Peniston, Librarian, The Newark Museum, 49 Washington Street,
> P.O. Box 540, Newark, NJ 07101; telephone: (973) 596-6625; fax: (973)
> 642-0459; email: [log in to unmask]
>
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__________________________________________________________________
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