COLLECTION CONNECTION #133

You can now view our roadmap to learn about the work we are doing to develop Vernon CMS and what we have planned for the future.

Your feedback through the Vernon User Group, support tickets, and emails has been very valuable in helping us plan our development.

Our current work includes upgrading OpenInsight (the underlying database), library improvements, Vernon Browser improvements, introducing a bulk-delete tool, and is followed by improvements for valuations.

In future, we’ll improve our fields for deaccessioning.

Register now for our VUG Online meeting from Wednesday 16 to Thursday 17 October.

We have presentations on museum redevelopment, fossil accessioning, digital objects and time-based media, archaeological rationalisation, and managing hazards and risks.

You’ll also learn the latest on Vernon CMS and have an opportunity to network with your fellow Vernon users.

Copyright describes the rights that are held in creative works including photography, artwork, patents, and technical designs. 

You can record rights information in Vernon CMS for different situations, including when you own the copyright, when someone else owns the copyright, for inward loans, and for cultural permissions. You can use the rights files in the Activities module to track processes in greater detail.

This Explainer article includes links to external resources that will help you manage rights at your organisation.

Vernon CMS can automatically generate emails when your Object records or Activity records change their procedural status. It uses procedural control to open your email software, such as Outlook.

There’s a new version of Outlook, called new Outlook for Windows. Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow Windows applications such as Vernon CMS to generate emails.

So if you use procedural control to send emails, make sure you keep classic Outlook installed, even if you use the new Outlook for other purposes.

Snowy temperatures greeted 14 attendees of our annual New Zealand Vernon User Group (VUG) meeting at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū on Monday 19 August.

The group heard about Vernon CMS developments and enjoyed presentations from Canterbury Museum and Auckland Museum about their work.

Some of the group then shared a cosy dinner.

Our UK-based colleague, Alex, travelled to the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) conference in Mobile, Alabama, held from 11 to 14 September 2024. Alex spoke to a range of people about their collections.

The trip included a visit to the impressive Fort Morgan, a pentagonal bastion fort at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Over 30 million bricks were manufactured for its construction by enslaved men, women and children.

The Towards a National Collection (TaNC) Programme Directorate commissioned user research to identify researchers’ needs and requirements, helping to define what should be included in a future UK digital collections infrastructure.

Researchers desire more digitised materials but acknowledge that this requires dedicated funding and support. They value comprehensive search functionalities, advanced filtering and sorting options, and user-friendly interfaces for exploring and interacting with collections. And there is strong support for connections to be built between collections and institutions.