• Background to accession and inventory data at the VG&M, University of Liverpool • Photogaphy student solander box inventorying project • Getting volunteer handlisting data on to Adlib Moira Lindsay, Curator (Art), Victoria Gallery & Museum University of Liverpool

1. Using volunteer-
gathered data to
improve records
Moira Lindsay, Curator (Art)
Victoria Gallery & Museum
University of Liverpool

2. Victoria Gallery & Museum

3. Collections background
1977 Card index > 1990s Access Database > 2008 Adlib Museum

4. Solander box
inventorying and
digitisation to update
records
Yvonne Metcalf
Photography student placement

5. Background
– 4,300 fine art records – no images
– 2008 collection move
– Needed to inventory of solander boxes
after major unframing process
– Had new Adlib Museum but not had much
chance to use it
– Approached by photography student for a
placement
– Originally asked Yvonne to do 1-2 boxes. In
the end she photographed 701 works on
paper, undertook inventory checking
medium, condition, inscriptions,
dimensions

7. Using volunteer
hand-listing data for
new records
Heritage collections – new records

8. Dental Collections
– Recently brought under our care
– Internationally important
– No existing electronic records
– Programme of volunteers working
on handlists in Excel, since before
Adlib, didn’t want to lose data
– Volunteers had backgrounds in
medicine, science and one in
dentistry so had subject knowledge
and a thorough approach
– Old catalogues for collection found
after handlisting had started

9. Dental Collections

10. Dental Collections

11. Dental Collections: importing into
Adlib
– 786 Excel to 1,108 records for
4,936 items in Adlib
– Some needed a bit of tidying
– Important to get the data into
Adlib and ensure that it was
used and valued
– Tested approach, considered
different options, wrote up
plans and procedures, then
imported from Excel into Adlib
– Chose not to use hierarchy
fields yet, they will be worked
on in Adlib
– Dental Collections data manual and plan: sets
out fields, process used so far, how it can be
continued (even if it is not by us!)
– Volunteer data entry tab
– Future: eventually we hope our data will feed
into the University of Liverpool’s Discover
online catalogue

12. Dental Collections

13. Worth it?

14. Questions?
moiral@liverpool.ac.uk