Information Services Department Records

The earliest reference to the Museum's adoption of any type of electronic support was in the 1982-1984 Annual Report. It notes that Susanna D. Roberts worked in the Administrative Services office as the lone word processing operator. In 1991, the Museum established an Information Systems department, which consisted of a manager, Robert Leming, and Oscar Gunther, Alexander Ryabin and William Taylor Howard as parti-time computer assistants. Two years later, the department's title was changed to Technical Services and its personnel grew to include audio-visual and telephone technicians. In 1997, William Weinstein joined the Museum to manage its newly created Computer Servcies department. Telephone ("Voice") and audio-visual systems were now a separate office. Two year later, the department began operating as Information Services, and Weinstein was named Director. As of the 2006 Annual Report, Weinstein continues to serve as Director of the department, which now is staffed with Database and Network administrators, a Help Desk supervisor and technician, and a Business Systems coordinator.

In addition to this staff is another office, Collections Information System Project. The project was initiated in 1999 and began with an 18-member committee comprised of curators, conservators, registrars, educators and librarians coming together to select a centralized database system to manage, catalogue and provide access to the Museum's 300,000+ works of art. Jenny Wilker joined the Museum that first year to manage the project, which resulted in the Museum's implementation of "TMS" (The Museum System) database. Wilker retired at the end of 2006. The office, with a staff of approximatley 10, continues to update and expand on its electronic collection management capabilities.