Hello list,
 
This is my long-overdue summary of responses to my PastPerfect and A/V Materials inquiry.  A number of people asked me to forward responses, so clearly there is some interest in this!  If anyone else has suggestions, perhaps you could share them with the whole list.
 
After reviewing the responses and playing around with the program a little, I’ve decided that the best thing for our purposes is to adopt PastPerfect but use the regular archival materials screen to enter information on all types of A/V collections.  There is an oral history screen, but it doesn’t seem to be very well thought-out (for example, there is nowhere to enter information about tape copies!).  My biggest concern about the oral history screen is there seems to be no way to show structure - that is, enter a collection-level record linked to a series or item-level record.  This seems a little strange since oral history is, after all, archival material.  The archival materials screen, on the other hand, is clearly based on a finding aid; the structure makes sense.  I am going to use a number of custom fields, including fields on copies/formats and transcription, to tailor the archival screen for A/V materials. 
 
-Sarah Duncan
Oral History Archivist, Kentucky Historical Society
 
This was my original question:
 
Hello list,
  
  Does anyone have experience using PastPerfect 4.0 for audiovisual
items? 
  
  Specifically, I am interested in cataloging:
  - film
  - folklife collections
  - oral history collections
  - music collections (mostly live recordings, not albums)
  
  I'm particularly worried about folklife collections, since they tend
to have audio, paper, and photo components, and occasionally videos as
well; I would like to try to find a way to keep all of these components
together intellectually, if possible, but I'm not sure if PastPerfect
allows for this.
  
  Also, how easy is it to customize PastPerfect?  And has anyone tried
exporting from PastPerfect to CONTENTdm? 
  
  I'd appreciate any and all feedback (positive and negative).
  
  Thanks!
  -Sarah

 
 
And here are the responses:
 
#1
I use two versions of PastPerfect--3.5 and 4.0.  I am just beginning to use 4.0.  It has a section just for oral histories with appropriate fields.  Generally, I use the "collection"  Hebb Collection, Bohanon Collection as the umbrella and then catalog items where they would fall--archives, objects, photos, whatever.  If 1966.001.0012 is an archive record in the Bohanon collection, then 1966.001.0025 may be an object record for a lock of hair, etc.  There is a tab in all records for a relation to other parts of the database and I use that freely.  I have a scrapbook full of photos and I have a record for the scrapbook in 1995.001.0744 and I relate that to every single photo record from the book. It is also possible to discuss the components of the collection in the scope and contents section of the fonds record, alerting users to the existence of several media.  Version 4 would probably be the most useful for what you are trying to do.
 
 
#2
Greetings,
  I'd strongly recommend you download the free evaluation copy from the 
PastPerfect website.  I'm still learning how to use it, so I can't 
advise you on its
 features.  The evaluation copy is fully featured, 
however, which would allow you to explore a bit.
 
http://www.museumsoftware.com/
 
Good
 luck!
 
#3
Hello,
I would also be interested in hearing anything folks have to say about 
this topic.  I was
 recently asked to advise some people in a corporate 
archive who have received a large multimedia collection (that was previously 
held by their marketing department) how to incorporate it into thier 
PastPerfect database.
 We have had to establish a   number of new object names as their current 
set up stopped at 'tape, magnetic' and never got as far as optical 
discs--that level of customization was fairly simple.  I have been attempting to 
work out an array of 'relationships' to keep together different parts of   
single project or to connect different levels of digital provenance, etc.
 It seems to work for now, since the relationships tab is easy to work 
with, but it is something of a work-around that I am not entirely happy with.

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