Functional Requirements for Collections Management Systems

From the Introduction:

"Contemporary archives and museums maintain collections which number in the tens or hundreds of thousands of items. As their relatively small staffs struggle with the demands imposed by their stewardship over this heritage, cultural repositories seek more effective means to control information concerning the cultural resource for which they are responsible. This study examines the information requirements of a system for managing collections in any cultural repository, whether that system is ultimately automated or not. The discussion is intended to make professionals more aware of the informational requirements of the many activities which comprise collections management, and to identify for systems designers, and those evaluating automated systems, the underlying functions which support the collections management process."