The Victorian Collections CMS offers cataloguers four different record categories. For each item you catalogue, you will be able to select an Object, Artwork, Publication or Archive record category.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Your choice of record category might be informed by the way your organisation manages a collection item and its information, or it may be informed by the item itself.
It is possible that across your collection you will employ more than one record category. For example, a social history museum with a predominantly object-based collection may also manage public record archives, a gallery or RSL may also manage a reference library. You can change record categories at any time.
Items collected for historic or scientific interest. This might include three-dimensional objects, paper documents (stand-alone items that are not archives, e.g. historical photographs, maps, letters), books that are not for public lending (e.g. rare of historic books), and digital items (e.g. oral histories, films).
If your collection includes rare books that you are not lending, or paper documents which are stand-alone items, the object record category can be used to catalogue these items.
Artworks or works of artistic craftsmanship. Items catalogued using this record category could be two or three dimensional, or digital. The Artwork record category includes additional fields to record Edition and Series, Art Movement, Artist Statement, Credit Line, and Mounting and Framing information.
Publications that are available to be borrowed or read by the public or members of your organisation. This record category is suitable for cataloguing any publication (e.g. magazines). Typically, these publications will be commercially available or not one-of-a-kind items. This record category includes additional fields to record the ISBN, Subjects, Series, Editions, Summary and to identify the item as Fiction or Non-Fiction.
Documents, photographs, maps or correspondence in your collection that are considered archives in a more formal sense due to their shared provenance, function or a particular style of arrangement. This record category includes additional fields to record the Archival Unit Type, Format, Start/End Date, Provenance, Purpose/Function, Arrangement and Content.