Upload
euclid
View
53
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Canadian Heritage Information Network Creation of the Collections Management Software Review (CMSR). Heather Dunn, CHIN. Presentation Summary. CHIN and its mandate What is the CHIN Collections Management Software Review? Why did CHIN undertake this project? How was the Review conducted? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
My Resource for Excellence.
Canadian Heritage Information Network
Creation of the Collections Management Software Review(CMSR)Heather Dunn, CHIN
Presentation Summary
CHIN and its mandate
What is the CHIN Collections Management Software Review?
Why did CHIN undertake this project?
How was the Review conducted? Evaluation team Tools Process Publication
National Centre of Excellence for Museums
of the Department of Canadian Heritage, created in 1972
Develops and provides
skill developmentProducts and services for
heritage professionals
Supports the development, presentation and marketing of digital
innovative technologies
CHIN – 1972-2010 1972 – The National Inventory Program 1982 – Canadian Heritage Information Network 1995 – First Corporate / Professional Web site 1999 – Artefacts Canada National Database 2001 – Virtual Museum of Canada 2009 – Redesign of Web sites, 3 portals:
The Corporate site www.chin.gc.ca
The Professional Exchange www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca
The Virtual Museum of Canada www.virtualmuseum.ca
Active Network of Heritage Institutions
More than 1,400 not-for-profit heritage member institutions of all sizes and disciplines, from across Canada
Over 35 years of experience
National and international partnerships
What Is the Collections Management Software Review (CMSR)?
A series of CHIN publications which evaluated collections management software products for museums
Four editions, published between 1996 and 2003
What Is the CMSR (continued)? Assessed the suitability of specific software to museum
discipline, collections size, museum functions, and hardware and software environment
Analyzed vendor reliability, support requirements, customization possibilities, and costs
Ensured that the software met CHIN and international standards, and allowed for importing and exporting data
Why Did CHIN Undertake the CMSR Project? In 1995, CHIN began assisting museums with the
transition of their collections data from the CHIN mainframe to in-house collections management systems
The CMSR was created to assist museums with the transition by helping them select appropriate software
The transition was accomplished by 1998
Today, museums maintain their own collections management data in-house, and periodically upload data to the Canadian national database, now called "Artefacts Canada"
Editions of the Review
CHIN published four editions of the Review:
Edition 1 (1996) reviewed 11 software products Edition 2 (1997) reviewed 16 software products Edition 3 (2000) reviewed 18 software products Edition 4 (2003) reviewed 16 software products
My Resource for Excellence.
Product Reports – excerpt
How Was the Review Produced?
Creation of the Criteria Checklist Request for Information Evaluation Team Demonstrations/Evaluations Publication
Creation of the Criteria Checklist
A list of over 500 functions that can be performed by a collections management system. For example: Does the system allow the user to record the person
who moved an object or specimen lot? Demonstrate. Is it possible for external pre-built thesaural files to
be integrated into the software? Demonstrate.
The Checklist was a key tool in the creation of the Review— it was the basis for comparison used to assess and rate each function performed by the various software packages
Requesting Information from Software Vendors An request for product information was sent to over 40 Collections
Management Software Vendors internationally
The request: outlined the parameters for the evaluation asked the vendor for pertinent information such as vendor product
description, product costs, etc. included the Criteria Checklist to be completed by the vendor
Responding software vendors indicated which functions within the Checklist they could perform, and were scheduled to demonstrate those functions that they claimed to support.
The Evaluation Team The Evaluation Team for the Reviews consisted of:
4 CHIN staff members (3 for some Editions) that were dedicated full-time to the Review
Approximately 20 museum professionals volunteering as reviewers
The volunteer team members were generally from Canadian or U.S. museums that were looking for software
To find volunteer evaluators, CHIN notified the museum community of the opportunity to evaluate collections management software
Respondents included registrars, curators and collections managers. All had background in collections management, but represented wide variety of museum sizes and disciplines.
Product Demonstrations Each software vendor that had responded to the Request for
Information was scheduled to demonstrate their software
For the earlier Editions: Demo at the CHIN office A 2-day demo of all the Checklist items the vendor
supported Approximately 20 evaluators, from Canadian museums –
some local, many remote
For later Editions: Evaluations were “taken to the community” – demos in
conjunction with U.S and Canadian museum conferences (e.g., AAM, CMA, etc.)
A 1-day demo of selected criteria (169 of 500) List of criteria selected for evaluation not shared with the
vendor in advance
Evaluation The Evaluation Team followed the Criteria Checklist,
requesting the vendor to demonstrate only the functions they could support
For each function demonstrated, team members provided: Scores (e.g., Good, Fair, Poor, or Does not Perform, with
the addition of “+” or “-” for more accuracy) Comments to each demonstrated criteria A narrative overall evaluation of the software
The scores were converted to numeric values, averaged and summarized for the “Software Review”
Detailed average scores and comments were made available within “Product Profiles”, one for each software product
Publication Software Review and Criteria Checklist were made
freely available on the CHIN Web site; printed versions sold
Criteria Checklist was also available in a “customizable” version online that allowed museums to select the criteria that they required from the Checklist, and produce a custom report detailing which software products met their selected criteria and how they performed
“Product Profiles” (detailed reports on individual software products) were given to CHIN member museums on request, but sold to others
Why Did Software Vendors Participate? CHIN did not pay vendors to participate or cover their
demonstration costs Vendors saw this as an opportunity to market their
software Vendors that were included in the first editions of the
Review had a head start in an emerging market in Canada
CHIN received requests from vendors wanting to participate in subsequent reviews
Influence on the Software Market
“CHIN Accreditation” – achieved if the software imports/exports data in a format that was compatible with Canada’s national collections inventories
Software products marketed as “CHIN-Accredited”
As a result, many vendors developed an import/export function specifically for the Canadian market, based on CHIN data fields
How Museums Used the Review and Related Products Museums used the Review to shortlist software products
The museum then requested the more detailed “Product Profiles” for their shortlisted systems
The museum requested an in-house demonstration from the vendors of those products that met their criteria
Museums downloaded and modified the Criteria Checklist and used it to score/rate products during their own demos to perform their own evaluation of the systems
Museums used the online Software Selection course to guide them through the software selection process
Positive reviews from museums and from evaluators
Collections Management Software in Canada
A very wide variety of software is used in Canada. CHIN does not endorse any particular software. However, the predominant software packages are:
For small museums: Virtual Collections (GCI Inc.) PastPerfect
For medium to large museums: Mimsy (Willoughby/Selago) The Museum System (Gallery Systems) KE-EMu
How Long Did It Take?
About 9 months per Edition For the 4th Edition:
January 2003 – RFI sent out to vendors February 2003 – Responses received April to June 2003 – Software Evaluations took place
at various locations July-September 2003 – Results were compiled Published in late Fall of 2003
Future?
Plans to update the Criteria Checklist in 2010-2011
Update to reflect new functionality of today’s software products
Thank You!
Heather Dunn
Heritage Information AnalystCanadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN)Department of Canadian HeritageGovernment of Canada