[Mary Colbert]

Does anyone use collective access? How does it compare to PastPerfect? We don’t have cataloging software and are looking to select one. We do have a partial inventory in Excel.

Thank you.

http://www.collectiveaccess.org/

[Louise Stewart Beck]

Hi Mary,

I’ve never used collective access personally, but I’ve reached out to some colleagues who are highlighted in their ‘featured projects’. I’m hoping they will chime in here, or I will post an update with their thoughts.

[Mary Colbert]

Thanks – looking forward to finding out more about this software.

[Sterling Jenson]

Greetings.

I am the Collections Manager at the March Field Air Museum and I set up CollectiveAccess for my museum. I used PastPerfect at another museum and did not like it; I prefer the workflow of CollectiveAccess.

I used PastPerfect when I was volunteering at another museum and it felt clunky. CollectiveAccess allows for much more customization of the program, so that you can create a database that does exactly what you need. For instance, we started with a basic DublinCore installation profile, but you can also install the version to match VRA Core, Darwin Core and other standards. Metadata Standards available in CollectiveAccess installation profiles. I have modified the basic installation profile to include elements from the old Access database that did not match up with the new database. Other elements which I like is that the program is a website which means that I can have anyone use any computer connected to our network to access the database. Which can come in handy if someone needs to use a speech to text program.

While I know the people over at PastPerfect are working on this, the current PastPerfect is built on a database program which has not been updated in ten years. The next version will use a different database backbone, so I would suggest that anyone looking into PastPerfect now budget out the funds for the upgrade or to wait.

One of the problems with CollectiveAccess is that the program is a website and is built on several other programs which also need to be running, e.g. Apache, PHP, MySQL, which makes installation a bit more complicated.

Hopefully that answers your questions.

[Louise Stewart Beck]

Hi Mary,

The University of Michigan Museum of Art uses Collective Access, and Katherine Prichard is able to discuss both systems with you if you reach out to her directly. Please use the UMMA Conservation email (umma-conservation-lab@umich.edu) and it will get to the right place.

[Mary Colbert]

Thank you.

Mary

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