Locations and movements

Knowing where items in your collection are located is critical to collections management, but before we can record the location of items we need to document the locations themselves.

Documenting storage locations

The Locations and containers data sourceClosed The management of a collection can involve a vast amount of information about objects / items / books, people and organizations, events, administration and more. This information is stored as records in data sources. Each data source stores a specific type of information: details about collection items, people, events, loans, and so on. holds the records of fixed storage locations and containers, how they relate to each other, and any other information held about them. Broadly speaking, a fixed storage location is a shelf, room or building; and a container is a location that can be moved, a box or tray for instance.

Typically we add a record for each location from the highest level (the institution itself, or a building for instance) to the lowest (a shelf or container for instance). A hierarchy of location records is then built by linking the record for a container to the record for a shelf to a cabinet to a room to a floor to a building using the Is part of (part_of (2A)) and Contains fields (part (nt)). For example:

National Museum>Main Campus>Ground Floor>Special Exhibitions Room>Shelf 1

Tip: Use the Hierarchy browser when viewing records in Locations and containers to see the hierarchical relationship between locations.

The following fields are important when documenting a location:

Field

Details

Location or Container

Whether this record is for a location or a container. The value selected here determines which fields are available in the record (different details are recorded for the two types of location).

Name

A name for the location (does not need to be unique).

Barcode

A unique ID, automatically assigned when the record is saved. Required for barcode scanners (like Axiell Move).

Locations and containers

Where Location or Container = location:

Field group

Details

Is part of

In a hierarchy of locations, Name (part_of (2A)) links to the location immediately above this location (a room Is part of a floor, which Is part of a building for instance).

Contains

In a hierarchy of locations, Name (part (nt)) links to one or more locations immediately below this location.

Location

When we view the record for CCMC-C1, we see that it is part of CCMC and that it too contains a number of storage locations:

Where Location or Container = container:

Field

Details

Normal location>Name

A Linked fieldClosed A type of field used to link one record to another. A Linked field is a drop list of values (records that the field can link to). When a link is made, the field stores a reference to the linked record (a linkref).. Links to the record for the location where this container belongs. This can be a fixed storage location or another container.

Container type

A Linked fieldClosed A type of field used to link one record to another. A Linked field is a drop list of values (records that the field can link to). When a link is made, the field stores a reference to the linked record (a linkref).. The type of container. Details about different container types are recorded in the Container types data source.

Current location>Name

Where the container is currently located (use the Change locations Task to relocate a container).

Contains>Name

A Linked fieldClosed A type of field used to link one record to another. A Linked field is a drop list of values (records that the field can link to). When a link is made, the field stores a reference to the linked record (a linkref).. The name of any containers stored within this container.

Managing the location of collection items

Location details for items in your collection (in Objects, Archives, etc.) are found on two panels in Record details View:

  • Location | Future movements

    Here we record the normal and the current location of an item, as well as any future movements:

    Locations

    Two groups of fields are used when recording the location of items in your collection:

    • Normal Location – the location where the item is usually found.
    • Current Location – where the item is now.

      The full hierarchy from the normal / current location up to the highest level is shown in a read-only context field typically placed below the Normal location and Current location fields. In this example, the current location of an object is Bay 1, and the context field shows the entire hierarchy from Bay 1 up to the highest level, National Museum:

      Current location

    As the name suggests, the Future movements group of fields is for recording the planned movement of an item. Details added here are not processed by Collections in any way (if you add a future movement date, the current location will not be updated automatically by Collections on that date).

  • Location history

    Here we find a history of changes to the location of the item. Any time that a change to an item's location is recorded, the Location history is updated.

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