Safeguarding Collections Management!

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1 Safeguarding Collections Management! Museum professionals around the country operate their facilities, manage assets and risk and prepare for emergencies. Understanding and planning for virtual asset risk management needs to be part of that emergency preparedness. Quite a number of local museums currently use the PastPerfect software package, however it was thought appropriate to re-assess PastPerfect due to sustained issues of the viability of its core database, Visual FoxPro as well as it s other issues. It is a good time to investigate a range of possible solutions.

2 History! PastPerfect Software, Inc. founded 1996 PastPerfect 2.0 released in 1998 PastPerfect 3.0 released in 2001 PastPerfect 4.0 released in October, 2004 PastPerfect 5.0 released in June, 2010 Currently PastPerfect users in MN 9000 PastPerfect users Nationwide

3 Emerging Issues! 1. PastPerfect uses Visual Fox Pro (VFP) as its database 2. March 2007, Microsoft announced that there would be no VFP 10, thus making VFP 9 (released to manufacturing on December 17, 2004) the last commercial release 3. On January 12, 2010, mainstream support from Microsoft for VFP ended 4. Extended support is available, per policy, through January 13, 2015 PastPerfect Software, Inc. appears not have an extended support agreement

4 What does it mean?! Visual FoxPro's retirement by Microsoft does not create immediate problems and in most cases problems that develop will be gradual and relatively easy to ignore and postpone resolutions. But these assumptions are not a given and there are real and potentially serious risks to organizations using PastPerfect.!

5 Issues brought up to Past Perfect Software Inc.! 1. Potential abrupt changes. At some point Microsoft could issue a Windows Security patch or other update that breaks some aspect of Visual FoxPro which then could disable the PastPerfect program or some aspect of it. 2. New Security Requirements. One of the biggest dangers would come should new data security requirements come to an industry that VFP may be unable to meet. That is, VFP and thus PastPerfect works as designed but is no longer sufficient. 3. Compatibility with upcoming versions of Windows. While Windows 7 and 8 appear to work with VFP and PastPerfect, there is no assurance that future versions of Windows will do so. There is also concern that issues may develop with upcoming 64-bit programs and databases that interact with VFP programs and databases. This requires PastPerfect to be in compatibility mode to function and no longer works natively. 4. Brain Drain. Smart, savvy software developers know that it is crucial to be skilled in current and marketable technologies. Therefore, the pool of all VFP programmers has diminished drastically and will continue to diminish. The pool of the very best VFP programmers has diminished the fastest. 5. Transparency - PastPerfect has not issued any statements to its user community on VFP problem. During both my times talking with PastPerfect representatives at the 2013 and 2012 AALSH Conferences their only statement was that they were aware of it and will be taking corrective action in 2-3 years (they said this each year). "Trust us" is not acceptable. It is important to provide real details and timelines. 6. Extended support is available, per policy, through January 13, 2015 However, it appears PastPerfect Software, Inc. does not have an extended support agreement. 7. Lack of Action. According a form statement sent by Client Services "As far as future development of PastPerfect, we've got our ear to the rail and continue to look for the best programing and database solutions for our clients. When we find it, we will move PastPerfect to that new platform. There is concern that this late in the game (over 7 years since the announcement all support would end in 2015) PastPerfect has not even made some of the basic decisions needed or informed its user community of the situation.!

6 Response On March 14, 2014 Local History Services held a meeting with Directors of Minnesota history organizations about the situation with past perfect. It was agreed to set up a task force to deal with the issue. And has been holding monthly meetings. At Local History Service s statewide workshops a session was held on the situation detailing the issue with PastPerfect and trends with thecollections software industry in structure, pricing and delivery.

7 The PastPerfect Roadmap On Wednesday, June 11, 2014, PastPerfect released this statement in to its user community and on it s web site.!! The to the community is somewhat misleading as we have never said at any of our community workshops that Visual Foxpro (VFP), will stop working in The real issue is that with no support from Microsoft of VFP it is a risk of catastrophic failure if a Windows security patch or other update breaks some aspect of the program or new data security requirements come along that VFP may be unable to meet.!

8 Additionally In addition to the VFP issue there are other potential serious issues that PastPerfect needs to address to its user community: 1. Both the founders and owners Richard Hilton and Mary Parr are (if not already) close to retirement age. Companies often do not survive the death, retirement or incapacity of their founders. Harvard Business School professor Rakesh Khurana, who has written extensively about CEO succession states: "Most firms don't survive. In tech in particular, it's like watching fruit flies." How will they pull off the transition of the company as well as the new software model - Software as a Service (SaaS). 2. PastPerfect's inclusion of member management in the same program with collections management. It is likely security issue having both together. For best security practice the two should be separated. It may not be what PastPerfect users want, no one likes using passwords either, but it is the reality of the world we live in.

9 Others 1. The Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO) is doing a very similar thing. We are working together to find a collections management system that we can recommend to both our members. 2. Association of Nova Scotia Museums (ANSM) has already moved its 51 members from Microsoft Access to a new online open source collections management system, Collective Access NovaMuse NovaMuse is a collection of collections that allows users to search and navigate through some of the collections of Nova Scotia's community museums.

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12 TRENDS

13 Open Source Open source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source's greatest appeal is the leveraging of resources of the partners and the community for shared value creation. The open source model provides a real tool to solve the "do more with less" challenge facing museums.

14 In the past, when the University of MN (or any other educational institution) spent $500,000 for some system or modification to a system, the investment provided no advantage to the Minnesota Historical Society and other educational institutions gained little. The open-source model changes all of this In open source all of us are mutually using other people's money (and good will) to get and sustain the systems we need.!

15 Open source license Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition and allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. A license must go through the Open Source Initiative's (OSI) license review process. Currently 62 Open Source Licenses approved by the OSI

16 Examples Examples of open source licenses: GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPL-3.0) MIT license (MIT) Apple Public Source License (APSL-2.0) Microsoft Public License (MS-PL) NASA Open Source Agreement 1.3 (NASA-1.3) IPA Font License (IPA) Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (ECL-2.0)

17 ! Term license Software leasing Trends in Software: Pricing! New Software Pricing Trends! Software as Service Model Subscription delivery of technology Commercial Open Source Software made available without license fees for usage but that requires fees for maintenance and support No up-front license Cheaper for software intended only for short-term use Ability to manage deployment internally No operational management; no up-front license Makes software accessible to smaller companies that otherwise could not afford the IT effort No up-front license Control over the code Ability to choose any support provider

18 Trends in Software: Desktop or Cloud! The term cloud computing refers to the new computing model in which all software AND data are stored within the cloud - a metaphor for storage devices and host computers accessed via the internet.! PROS of Cloud Computing Fast Deployment Lower cost/no Capital Expense Reduced IT maintenance Elastic and Unlimited Scalability Energy Efficiency Reliability (service & data) CONS of Cloud Computing Information Security Physical Security Long Term Offline Storage Bandwidth Bottleneck Potential Vendor Lock-in Lack of control during downtime Better Resource Utilization

19 Content Management Options Content management options considered feasible are as follows: Option One: One unified, centralized catalog and centralized data entry. (MN Digital) Option Two: Multiple standardized catalogs (one per museum) hosted on a central server with remote access from each museum. (CollectiveAccess/CollectionSpace) Option Three: Multiple standardized catalogs (one per museum) held on local standalone museum computers. (PastPerfect/Microsoft Access)

20 Alternative Collection Management Systems! The software packages considered most likely to meet the museums needs, accord with international best practice, and suit the eclectic hardware held by the museums and their volunteers are as follows: PastPerfect not open source, lack of transparency, lack of interoperability, business model & succession issues CollectiveAccess small shop & lack of administration structure, unable/unwilling to form partnerships CollectionSpace relatively unused by history organizations, no public web-access or "front-end"

21 Which Path to take?

22 ! SURVEY Take the survey at:!

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24 If your organization doesn t use PastPerfect Museum Software, what does it use to track collections? Bento! Collector Systems! Database! Excel! File Maker! Good old fashioned paperwork! Just exploring possibilities! Notebook of collections listings! Our own format based on Access Paper! Paper! Excel spreadsheets. We customized our own with Access Web based database system!

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27 Are there features of PastPerfect you d like to change? If so, what would you like to change? 1. Description search ability in Temporary Custody,! 2. Easier ability to create and update special contact lists for special mailings.! 3. Easier ability to create inventory lists.! 4. Easier ability to create forms.! Additional fields in the container list - "condition" alone would be great. Avoid using 1 authority file to serve multiple fields through various catalogs.! Back Up in the cloud! I appreciated having access to my PastPerfect at home using my laptop and then adding that new information to the work computer the next day! (Scatter/Gather). Remotely logging into my work computer is slower and I typically don't do this because of the speed.! I don't like the division of materials into separate databases (objects, etc.). It's annoying to have to a) classify things, and b)remember where I classifield them (is a photo postcard in photos? or in archives? or in objects?); the fields don't all correlate between catalogs; and the location of the fields on the screen changes between catalogs (eg. dimensions in objects vs. dimension details in photos -- the information is the same, but I have to put it in different places depending on the catalog I'm in.)! Also, my current version only shows images larger than 2 mb. so if something I scan produces an image less than that, it will show up on the item record, but if I do a keyword search and then look at images, it will say "no image available" (because it did not create one larger than 2 mb. Well, there IS an image available, but it refuses to show it to me from the search screen.) I might like to leaf through the search results by image rather than by list of individual records, but it fails in this regard.! I don't particularly like the choice of object names in the lexicon.! I wish it were more user friendly. It is really more than what our organization needs.! I wish the biographies in the "People" section could mesh with the bios in the Contacts section.! I wish scatter gather would recognize the corrections I make to the People, Subjects and Search Terms list.! Increase the ease of adding our logo to letters. receipts, etc.! Reports can be difficult for novices to pull out of PP. In addition, it can be difficult to conduct a search for someone not familiar with PP in that search terms have to match precisely and be assigned to the correct fields (i.e. must plug the right name in the donor field in order to get the donor record to appear). In conducting searches, I want to be able to plug in a search term and have the software look for that term across all fields.! Scatter-Gather in version 5.0! The inability to query Accessions. I had to create a report that would let me search two separate words in Accessions. The report format is not intuitive when we initially got the program I had to do a great deal of formatting to get it to look right and not truncate my Object descriptions, among other tweaks.! Also, if you only put in the number for shelf (which is how we determine where anything is) nothing shows up on the main Objects Catalog if you access it via Accessions.! The Envelope address option does not put in the correct address. I end up having to print envelopes through Word.! The search/query functions feel very "clunky." I also wish that it was not possible to add an item to the 4 catalogs without an accession record entered first. I find so many past records that have no connection to any kind of accession record. Backups are also very slow.! We have difficulty using PastPerfect on our networked laptop. It doesn't always allow full access, gives error reports, and closes.! with the version used at the museum, the newer version fulfill most of the changes we would want.!

28 Are there features you d like to add to PastPerfect? If so, please describe. Also spelling mistakes red-lined on the main objects page, instead of having to go through the spelling button. A better dictionary would be nice as well. Past Perfect dictionary does not recognize plurals a lot of the time and does not offer reasonable options for a misspelled word.! Highlight search words in Accessions - if you have a donation of over 300 items from one donor it can get very frustrating having to find the one word you're looking for.! Photo tagging in the multimedia Container lists in all catalogs! None that I can think of.! None! It would be nice to see images of pdfs and not just jpegs. I know I can attach pdfs in the multimedia tab, but I don't get the visual of the first page like I do with jpegs in the image management screen! I wish the research button could search accession records as well as object, photo, library and archive records simultaneously.! I wish I could import files from excel without the 250 character limit.! Cross gathering of biographies of Contacts and People would be an advantage. Also to be able to add fields to the Biography pages as necessary to include military information and organizations, etc.! 1. Ability to search in Temporary Custody by words.! 2. Ability to create or change forms in an easier manner.!!

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38 Do you display any of your collections data online? If so, what data do you choose to share? Accession numbers are displayed if a collections item is used online.! Collections data is only accessible with a membership password. We share the archives, photo collection, artifacts (photographed), deaths, marriages, births, probates, no confirmations, and baptisms, newspapers, cemetery records. And our research library books.! No x 25! No but hope to.! Not yet, but hope to do so in the near future.! Not yet.! Not yet.! Obituary information! Oral Histories are with Minnesota Digital Libray! We don't display online yet. We would like to do so, include images and short descriptions of the object.! We have many photos on MDL and I write blog posts featuring artifacts.! We just started our own website with limited information.! Yes, artifact description, provenance, title and subject; pictures! Yes, we have not updated in some time due to concerns about the second half of the question.! Yes. All that we can.!!

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40 If you don t share collections data online, what keeps you from doing so? Web mgr for our city! We just haven't done it! We don't have a complete catalogue yet. We are also trying to settle the logistics of copyright with most of the collection.! We are tiny and just getting started.! we are not far enough along to have enough to share! Waiting to update our website and uncertainty of costs.! Time, staff resources, and staff IT knowledge.! time, skills! time, skill! time and technical knowledge! Time and technical ability! The question of what perks should remain bundled with membership.! The organization doesn't share collections data online due to security reasons. This is not the feeling of all staff members, so when looking for a new collections software solution, be aware that there will be differing opinions within the same organization about whether to put collections online. An option that lets the org choose what to put online and what to keep offline would be ideal.! security, website data availability and cost, staff time for preparing data/what would be shared (we are still working on getting all collections data entered from paper files)! resources, both money and people! private (corporate) archives not open to the general public! Policy! online image thieves! Not all collection records have complete information. Time factor in preparing records for going online.! no staff time, cost! No ability to do so at this point.! NA! Manpower! Lack of paid staff, volunteer expertise, and/or funding! Just hasn't been done! I see no need to do so other creating more work for the staff we don't have.! I don't see the point of this option! Don't currently have Collections Management Software or Internet access.! Do not have the capability at this time.! Data privacy concerns. Also the lack of staff's ability / skill set to monitor such a task.! Awaiting processing completion of one collection.! At this point...time! Would love to get a "choice" amount of the collections data online at some point but also need to focus on getting all the collections data into the database.! As an independent non profit organization we rely in part on visitors to the site for revenue. Viewing our collection on line would discourage visitors. Additionally, our data base is incomplete at this time.!!

41 What else do you want to tell us about PastPerfect, another collections software system, or collections software in general that was not covered in the survey? We really appreciate but would not want to have two programs.! We just purchased it.! It works.! I probably would not change to something else unless PP did not work at all.! We have Past Perfect, but we haven't had the staff to move from the old system to the new.! We have been hoping to obtain PastPerffect but now are in a quandary as to what to do with the upcoming session on other software and the task force for evaluating systems.! Technical support is a big issue. We can't justifiably afford $500+ per year for a couple of questions. At the same time there should be pdf's or technical leaflets that can answer questions without having to bother PastPerfect staff. Software should make surveys and subsequent changes at least yearly if not more often.! More options for photo editing would be nice.! Options for preferring to not have have a monthly cost was not given. For many small organizations a monthly fee is not an option.i think if the option to not pay a monthly fee was given, you would have a very large response. Keep in mind most small organizations are working on a shoe string budget and are mostly volunteer. Spending even $500 a year is not a choice they have.! Nothing! It was determined 14 years ago when my predecessor thought PP was too expensive and upgrades were going to keep it too expensive; she hired a local techie to design what we have used ever since. It has been modified two or three times since then. It works.!!

42 CONTINUED What else do you want to tell us about PastPerfect, another collections software system, or collections software in general that was not covered in the survey? I've worked with PP in the past,and the Library module SUCKED!! IwouldemphasizethestrengthofPPingeneral.Whiletheprogramisabitbuggyandnetworkintensive,featuressuchas! browse view, edit in browse, accession/biography/locale linking (there are many many more) are extremely powerful. It also has very strong research tools... PP4's boolean search engine is used daily at my site.! Any replacement software should include many, if not all of those features. It must also have a nearly equal granularity for! security/user privileges.! I rely on the Past Perfect contact system.! I can track membership, volunteer hours, donation( (both cash and artifacts) for each contact.! I can take one form letter and the system pulls up all the necessary data to personalize it.! I use the list feature to create various lists for mailings! I like the search feature for contacts: I can find by zip code, etc.! I can generate reports for any time period as needed whether memberships, volunteer hours, donations.! Iliketheideaofcloudbased,butwouldfeelmorecomfortableifIknewthatIcouldaccesstheinformationeveniftheinternet is down.! I have started adding information into the "More information" box in the search terms list. For example, if a local building is featured in a photograph, we add the building to the search terms. In the "more information" box, we list the dates of construction, past occupants etc. I would like this feature continued.! IlikethatPastPerfectisrobustandubiquitousandhasgoodtechsupport.Ilikethatithassecuritysettingsandreasonable search capabilities. I don't like that it doesn't "think" like an archivist or even a librarian (Does it think like a museum curator? I don't know; I'm an archivist and have been a librarian, and I understand those 2 approaches better.)! My IT folks don't like PastPerfect, particularly. And I do get error messages fairly often.! I have been using the PastPerfect software since I have encouraged many organizations to use the software and have! presented training sessions for it.! PastPerfect,overpriced,not user friendly to general public and supportis $100 everytime you call them,! As someone who helped write this survey, I see that we could do a follow-up survey that deals solely with membership! software. Particularly because we're going to be unhitching membership from collections software.! Averywellwrittensurvey!!

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