Exhibition items

Introduced with the Standard Model, Items data sources are used to document and track collection items involved in day to day activities like loans and exhibitions. In prior Model Applications, when a collection item is on loan its Catalogue record (with details about the item) links directly to a Loans record (with details about the loan); what is lacking is somewhere to record details about the item in the loan, to track the status of each item as it navigates the loan workflow, or to plan actions that impact an item's involvement in the loan. The same is true of items involved in acquisitions, exhibitions and collections audits. Items data sources fill this gap by providing a place to manage and document each item individually as it participates in activities like loans and exhibitions. They include Acquisition items, Exhibition items, Loan items and Collections audit items.

An overview of Items data sources can be found here.

As you work with Exhibitions and venues records and Exhibition items records you will discover that much of the same sort of information is recorded in different places, from the high level exhibition record down to the granular exhibition items record. A good example is Status. The status of items in an exhibition can be managed and tracked in various places:

• In the high-level exhibition record in Exhibitions and venues all exhibition items are listed on the Items panel and it is possible to manage the status of each item's participation in the exhibition here (this is an efficient way to manage the status of all items in a single record).
• In the Exhibition items record for each item it is also possible to manage and track the item's participation in an exhibition on the Exhibition item details panel (any changes to the item's Status here are tracked on the Status history panel); on the Venues panel it is also possible to manage the status of each item's installation at a venue.

It is up to your institution how detailed and granular you need such information to be when recording details about exhibitions, venues and exhibition items.

The Exhibition item details panel includes a record summary (displaying critical details about the exhibition item), details about the status of the item, details about the object and the exhibition (linking to the Catalogue and Exhibitions and venues records):

Some of this information is pulled from linked records and is read-only, some can be edited; in particular you will want to update the Status information as the item progresses through the approvals process:

When Exhibition items records are created with the Create exhibition items task, items are assigned to one or more venues, and these are automatically listed on the Venues panel. Here it is possible to specify the start and end dates between which the item is present at the venue; it is also possible to manage the status of the item at the venue and to specify themes and subthemes relevant to the item's participation at a venue (in the event that the themes / subthemes differ from one venue to another).

All of the fields on this panel are a grouped occurrence If a field in the current record can have more than one value, we add an occurrence of the field for each value (e.g. a book can have multiple authors so we add an occurrence of the author.name (au) field for each author). An occurrence can be a member of a group of fields, and adding an occurrence of the field adds all members of the group at once. and can be repeated as a group or deleted as a group as required. There will be a group of fields for each venue that an item is assigned to with the Create exhibition items task:

The Actions panel is a basic workflow tool designed for managing tasks (actions) relating to the current record. The type of action tracked depends on the data source you are working in (actions in the Catalogue will not necessarily be the same as actions in Loans for instance); actions might include anything from scheduling meetings, reviews, to photography sessions, etc. Managing tasks might entail scheduling an action (a meeting for instance), tracking an action's progress (the crate has been ordered) or documenting that an action has been performed (the object was moved). This functionality is not meant to replace dedicated project management software, but it can be used to prescribe standard procedural tasks (setting default actions) and to track and log tasks relating to the current record.

Default and conditional actions

Application Administrators can define default actions for any new record in the System admin – occurrence defaults data source.

If an action is required when certain conditions are met, occurrence defaults can be set up to facilitate this; for example, in Acquisitions and acquisition proposals a Send Deed of Gift action can be added when a record has an Acquisition method (method (sm)) of gift and a Status (current_status (sS)) of approved.

Provide details of various actions (selected from the Type field) which affect this item throughout the loans process:

The purpose and use of many fields are clear and straightforward, and we only highlight those of particular importance below:

Associate media such as images, video and audio with the current record by linking to or uploading media:

Note: See Adding documents, URLs and PDFs above if linking digital documents (e.g. Word documents or PDFs) with the current record.

If the media you want to associate with the current record is already available in the Multimedia documentation data source, select the Link icon in the Reference field to open the Find data for the field box. Search for and select a media record to link to the current record The record currently displayed in Record details View or highlighted (with a solid grey background) in Result set View or Gallery View for instance. (full details about using the Find data for the field box can be found here).

If you want to upload new media and associate it with the current record, select the Upload option to locate a file accessible to your device. When a media file is uploaded and the current record is saved, a basic record is automatically created for the media in the Multimedia documentation data source, and it is linked to the current record's Reference field.

Once you save the current record, the media will be visible in Media viewer.

There is a lot more to working with media and full details can be found here.

On the Digital references panel we link to relevant digital documentation (Word docs, PDFs, URLs etc.):

Word docs and URLs (and other digital references) are linked to a record using a field with an Application data type such as File (File (RF)) on the Digital references panel. A field with an Application data type is associated with an application, such as a PDF reader; depending on your browser's configuration, clicking the underlined file name for a .pdf file will open the document in a browser tab:

Alternatively, click the Download icon to download and view the document.

Use these repeatable fields to link to one or more digital documents (Word docs, PDFs, URLs etc.) relevant to this acquisition item.

Most fields in Collections are intended to hold a specific piece of information (an object number, a title, a birth date, and so on) often defined by an industry standard (SPECTRUM or ISAD(G), for instance). Free fields, which are found on a Free fields panel typically near the bottom of the list of tabs in Record details View, provide more flexibility; while not new to Collections, their use in the past was mostly limited to holding data migrated from fields in legacy systems that had no obvious equivalent in Collections.

Note: In systems running Model Applications prior to the Standard Model, there is a single text type of free field.

The release of the Standard Model saw a significant increase in the number of fields and data sources available in Collections so that there is almost certainly a suitable field to hold your data without the need for customization. This has allowed for a new approach to the use of free fields in systems running the Standard Model, and Free fields panels are now intended as an alternative, where appropriate, to customization of the application. To that end, Free fields panels are now available across more data sources; and it is no longer necessary to store all types of data in a generic text field as there are now free fields to hold text, dates and numbers, and there is also a checkbox variant:

Their use is straightforward. You specify the purpose of the field in Type (name the field) and enter the value in the Content field:

Note: As values in the Type field are managed in the System lists data source2 Available in Axiell Collections systems running the Standard Model application., Application Administrators ($ADMIN users) are free to add new values as required.

As each group of fields on the Free fields panel (Texts, Dates, Checkboxes, Numbers) is a repeatable group of fields, you can use the Occurrences drop list in the Record details View toolbar to add / remove / move a group of fields.

If there is no native field for a piece of data, consider whether a free field can be used to hold it, avoiding the need to customize the application.

The current status of the exhibition item is shown on the Details panel. Any time the current status details are changed and the record is saved, the previous status details are recorded on the Status history panel, ensuring that a complete log of status changes is maintained: