Participants wanted for Collective Access pilot

The Collection Management Task Force is seeking 5 organizations willing to serve as pilot sites for CollectiveAccess, a web-based and open-source collections management software application.

MALHM is seeking a grant to cover costs of the pilot. Interested organizations should contact MALHM Board Member Ann Grandy, Pope County Historical Society curator, or MNHS Digital Technology Outreach Specialist Joe Hoover as soon as possible. Organizations will be chosen no later than Jan. 13, 2017 in order to meet the grant deadline.

The primary goal of this pilot project is to improve the quality of collections management tools available to the five implementing institutions, and by extension, to the field. The five implementers will participate in a community-driven collaborative and serve as leaders for their State and have the opportunity to participate in the development, deployment, and governance of a mission-critical software application.

Each organization will develop its own implementation plan, based on a standard template. These implementation plans will serve as a model for other organizations planning a move to CollectiveAccess. Most plans will include: defining functional and operational requirements, completing a data map and any necessary cleanup, and testing any new functionality created in the course of the project. With the assistance of the program management staff, the implementing institutions will select a service provider to complete the installation, configuration, and data migration work. Implementing institutions may choose to host the software in-house or select a service provider to provide remote hosting.

Ideally the organizations would have a part-time curator/collection manager on staff who is familiar with the collection and the current software and who would be eligible to increase their hours with grant funding.
At least three of the organizations should be current PastPerfect users, but organizations using other collection management systems such as Excel, Access, and Filemaker Pro are also encouraged to apply.  It is not mandatory for organizations to have their entire collection in their current database, but we are seeking organizations that have a large number of items in their current software system.

Earliest beginning date for grant work would be June 1, 2017.

The benefits of participating in the pilot program include:

• 3 years of membership to CollectiveAccess
• 3 years of web-hosting (if necessary)
• Configuration fully funded
• Data migration fully funded
• Funds to cover additional staff time needed for the project (increase hours for part-time staff or new hire)
• The ability to help develop a new software system

---