With the upcoming release of Nomenclature 4.0 for Museum Cataloging, there is no better time to finish any old lexicon clean-up projects in your PastPerfect database. While there will not be as many structural changes as seen when updating from the revised lexicon to the lexicon for Nomenclature 3.0, updating records to Nomenclature 4.0 will be easier if you have done a few things first:

  • Check for any spelling mistakes. Hopefully these come up as “unclassified, need to classify” terms and can be corrected in bulk from the PastPerfect lexicon page.
  • Clean up any grammatical or word order errors that can easily occur during cataloging and data entry.
  • If you use local, non-controlled object names, review these terms to make sure there is not a term in Nomenclature 3.0 that would be appropriate. Local terms can always be included in the other name or title fields for easy searching.
  • Make sure any local, non-controlled terms have been added to the lexicon in the structured hierarchy of Nomenclature 3.0. There is always a chance that the term will be added to Nomenclature 4.0 or other future editions of Nomenclature and it will be much easier to clean up later if the terms are already included in the hierarchy.
  • If there are certain terms that you know you want to review after Nomenclature 4.0 is released, add them to a catalog list for easy access and future searching. For example, I know that there will be new terms added to describe currency and my museum will want to use the more specific terms when they are available. To better update these terms later, I have added all of my currency to a catalog list that I can quickly updated as soon as the book is released.
v19941531

From The Wisconsin Veterans Museum

Updating catalog records can be tedious work but if you get your lexicon in good order now, it will be much easier to update the records in the future.  When Nomenclature 4.0 is released this July, keep an eye on the Nomenclature website through AASLH and the blog for tech tips. Also, always feel free to make suggestions to our submission page.