WCMAScan is a barcode scanner app with dynamic data and images used by art handlers at the Williams College Museum of Art to quickly and accurately update the location of art objects in the WCMA museum. WCMAScan runs on iPadOS. WCMAScan has been in use at The Williams College Museum of Art for more than three years.
Locations in the museum are barcoded according to setup in the Gallery Systems TMS database. Once a location code has been scanned the users then scans a series of art objects which are also barcoded within the TMS database. When an object is scanned the barcode data is used to retrieve metadata about the object and a small image of the object. This is to insure that the correct data about the move is being gathered. If the art object scan returns the expected image and data, the user taps a button to move the objet to the Move List.
When the user is finished loading images the the user taps a button to move to a screen displaying all of the objects moved to the move list along with the location they are being moved to. The user can remove any objects scanned in error from the list. Then the user taps the send email button to display the iOS mail composer view which is prepopulated with a visual list of the art objects and the location of the move. An attachment is programmatically attached to the email; it contains the data for the move in a form that the TMS system can ingest and update its storage data concerning the moved objects. The WCMA registrar receives the email and uses the attachment to update TMS.
This app is built for the WCMA museum and would have to be extensively revised for use by other museums.
Technical and user documentation are available to WCMA staff on the Williams College network.
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