Course Outline:
1. Introduction
2. Database structures and how they work
3. Essential and supplementary fields
4. Nomenclature, standards, and consistency
5. How to evaluate database systems
6. Use of the database beyond registration and cataloging
7. Upgrades
8. Database security
9. Conclusion

Logistics:
Participants in Collection Management Databases work through sections on their own. Instructors are available for scheduled email support. Materials and resources include online literature, slide lectures and dialog between students and online chats led by the instructor. The course is limited to 20 participants.

Sign up for this class with NATHPO at www.nathpo.org

Students must be staff at a tribal institution and meet NATHPO qualifications. This course is subsidized by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through a grant awarded to NATHPO.


The Instructor:
Sofia Galarza Liu is the collection manager and database project co-manager at the Spencer Museum of Art of the University of Kansas. Ms. Liu is also an implementation consultant and educator for Zetcom Information Systems, Inc.; she provides database administrator and user training for United States MuseumPlus clients. Ms. Liu's accomplishments include completing a two-year IMLS grant funded project to digitize the Spencer Museum of Art's collections and attending Museum Leaders: the Next Generation training at the Getty Leadership Institute in Los Angeles, California. She has a B.F.A in the History of Art and a Master's degree in Museum Studies from the University of Kansas.



John E. Simmons runs Museologica, an independent consulting company, and serves as Adjunct Curator of Collections at the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art Gallery at Pennsylvania State University. He has a B.S. in Systematics and Ecology and a Master's degree in Historical Administration and Museum Studies. Simmons began his professional career as a zoo keeper, then worked as collections manager at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas, where he also served as Director of the Museum Studies Program until 2007. He received 2011 Carolyn L. Rose Award for outstanding commitment to Natural History Collections Care and Management from the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the Superior Voluntary Service Award from the American Association of Museums and the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Mentoring of Graduate Students from the University of Kansas. Simmons' publications include three books, Herpetological Collecting and Collections Management (2002), Cuidado, Manejo y Conservación de las Colecciones Biológicas (2005, with Yaneth Muñoz-Saba), and Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies (2006). He consults, teaches, and does field work in the US, Latin America and Asia. For more information visit his web site MUSEOLOGICA

NA214: Collection Management Databases               Course Description & Info     Instructors: Sofia Galarza Liu and John Simmons               Student Login    Price: $150               TBD, 2012     Sign up at www.nathpo.org                Students must be staff at a tribal institution and meet NATHPO qualifications. This course is subsidized by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through a grant awarded to NATHPO.