In response to Rick Powell's enquiry:
We don't do ILL at the Morgan Library but otherwise your scenario
pretty much describes what is going on here. We have created MARC
records for
drawings, prints, cylinder seals, illuminated manuscripts, and art
objects in our OPAC, CORSAIR; they live side by side with records for
rare books, printed and manuscript music,
literary and historical manuscripts, and a reference collection. The
books, printed music, and medieval and Renaissance manuscripts are in
RLIN; the other collections will be loaded in RLIN as they become
available.
The ability to search for records for many different types of material
within the same database has proved to be a godsend for exhibition
planning. Curatorial departments at the Morgan are by and large
organized by material type (Literary and Historial Manuscripts, Prints
and Drawings, Ancient Near Eastern Seals, Medieval and Renaissance
Manuscripts). Although the curators know their own collections very
well, they are not as familiar with material in other departments, and
the ability to search the OPAC for material in all formats has made it
much easier to turn up items which they would never have thought of
including in an exhibition. It also turns up books and articles about
items in their collections (helps writing labels!) and catalogs of the
holdings of other institutions (good for locating related material they
want to borrow).
And of course it's great for scholars, too, or just to satisfy idle
curiosity (I never knew that Whistler sued the publishers
of George Du Maurier's Trilby for libel; he claimed one of the
characters--not Svengali!--was a libellous depiction of him).
Visit our website for more information about the OPAC:
http://www.morganlibrary.org/research/html/opac.html
The OPAC itself will not be available through the web until the end of
next year.
<Subject: Re: Marc records & Art?
<Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 17:24:10 EDT
<From: Rick Powell [log in to unmask]>
<Reply-To: ART LIBRARIES SOCIETY DISCUSSION LIST [log in to unmask]
<To: [log in to unmask]
<Why isn't art and objects of art, cataloged in the marc record format,
or are they?
<
<It seems that in general, large or small collection museums
differentiate their book,
<manuscript, documents, ect from their art collections.
<With the Marc record obtaining more universal acceptance yearly as the
medium for cataloging
<collections from sheet music to DVD's, bibliographic material to video
tapes, offering
<consortia's of collections in Web based public access catalogs format.
These collections
<feature accessibility by known and very familiar searching parameters,
with the ability of
<virtual image data base features.
<But instead we sponsor a host of start up technologies for stand alone
virtual image data
<Bass sites featuring perhaps Museum / collection software products that
won't function well
<outside their unique framework.
<
<One could in a consortia, web public access catalog envirement, search
for a specific
<publication on Tiffany glass, reserve the publication via an inter
collection loan request,
<search for a specific Tiffany vase and view the piece and all the
information regardng it.
<Truly a seemless solution. All via Marc record data base functions.
<
<Your thoughts please.
<
<Rick Powell, Direct Sales
<Automation Specialist
<The Library Corporation, TLC
<Research Park
<Inwood, WV 25428
<(800) 325-7759
<304-229-0295
<[log in to unmask]
<www.tlcdelivers.com
<
<
--
Elizabeth O'Keefe
Director of Collection Information Systems
The Pierpont Morgan Library
29 East 36th Street
New York, NY 10016-3403
TEL: 212 685-0008 x366
FAX: 212 481-3484
NET: [log in to unmask]
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