To hire professionals to assess and write a collections storage plan for a historically significant collection of books, which will allow greater protection and public access to this resource.
Twelve northwestern MN museums joined together to form the Minnesota's Historic Northwest group. The group, which includes: Beltrami, Clearwater, Kittson, Mahnomen, Norman, Lake of the Woods, Roseau, Pennington, Red Lake, Polk County Historical Societies, the East Polk heritage Center and the McIntosh Arts and Heritage Center collaborated to purchase supplies and to conduct workshops about artifact storage.
The AHS hired part-time, temporary staff to input data into their PastPerfect collections management system. This was Phase II of a cataloging project and the data had been gathered during Phase I of the project. AHS exceeded their goal by cataloging more than the estimated 1393 objects.
The PCHS updated PastPerfect Museum software from 3.0 to 5.0. This has improved the overall management and public accessibility of the collections.
Specifically, the software has made the Schoolhouse and the Military Uniform collections more searchable, traceable and available to researchers. Staff also have more complete information about what objects are housed in the Museum.
An accurate, up-to-date digital catalog of records was created when the Beltrami County Historical Society purchased and implemented PastPerfect software to monitor and inventory it's collections. A contractor was hired to oversee the project. Three interns were trained to assist with data entry, inventory methods and artifact photography. Paper accession records were entered into the database and missing data on previously digitized records was inserted.
Building on past efforts to catalog collections, the Three Rivers Park District continued the assessment and inventory of collections at The Landing in Shakopee. Inventories of 1, 015 artifacts from six (6) individual structures: the Wilkie House; the Graffenstadt House; the Kahl House; the Harms House; the Bank, and the Boesel "Red" Barn were conducted. All artifact information was recorded by PastPerfect software.
Dakota County Historical Society was dealing with crowded storage conditions—with existing space at capacity, collections spill over onto the floor and in the aisles—despite efforts to reduce/eliminate inappropriate collections. The project provided improved storage with room for growth. Dakota County Historical Society, Executive Director Chad Roberts interviewed.
