3rd North American EMu Users Meeting, 16-17 October 2007
The 3rd North American EMu Users Meeting was held at the New York Botanical Garden on 16-17 October. Between breaks this year’s 70 attendees were treated to a wide range of presentation topics, including: designing Crystal Reports; using EMu data for web content; the new EMu Conservation module; EMu dieting; using the EMu Thesaurus module as a culture authority; integrating EMu and DAMs; and future EMu developments.
Afternoons at the Gardens gave attendees the opportunity to take part in open discussion groups covering topics such as: the EMu Security model; User Generated Content; Project Management in EMu; EMu’s Bibliography module; the EMu Import tool; and various EMu Web implementations.
Day 1 concluded with a reception held at the Visitor’s Centre Café where guests were treated to fine food, drinks and conversation. Day 2 ended with the announcement that next year’s EMu Users Meeting will be held in Las Vegas and hosted by the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.
Special thanks to those who helped organise this year’s event, in particular Barbara Thiers, Lisa Fruscella, Sylvia Nikolova and Lisa Lee.
Thanks to Ellen Bloch, Nicole Tarnowsky, Barbara Thiers and Nestor Perez-Moliere for their interesting tours of the beautiful gardens and collection areas. Thanks also to those who provided feedback regarding the success of this year’s conference. Rest assured, your feedback is an invaluable resource for planning subsequent meetings.
Preceding the EMu Users Meeting, the American Museum of Natural History hosted the Natural History Special Interest Group meeting on 15 October. Thanks to Richard Monk for his work in organising the event and to Joanna McCaffrey for chairing. Watch EMuUsers.org for information regarding a Cultural History Special Interest Group at the next Users Meeting.
Finally, thank you to all who attended the 2007 North America EMu Users Meeting. The meeting was a great success and we hope to see everyone in 2008 in Las Vegas!
6th Australasian EMu Users Meeting, 5-6 September 2007
The 6th Australasian EMu Users Meeting was held in Adelaide, Australia, on 6-7 September at the Art Gallery of South Australia, and was attended by 44 EMu users. Consensus is that this was another successful EMu meeting. The program and topics, presentations, and the venue itself drew particularly favourable feedback. Day Two commenced with the ever popular Q&A session, an opportunity for users to pose any EMu related question to KE. As there never seems to be sufficient time to answer all questions, the time allocated to this session will be increased at future meetings in an effort to bridge the gap.
Two guest speakers made presentations. Darren Peacock, Director of Sweet Technology Pty. Ltd., spoke on "Trends in using collections information on the web", and Myra Pastuch from ICS (International Conservation Services) discussed "The use of the import tool at OPH/ICS".
On both days, following the formal sessions, attendees were invited to participate in tours of local institutions: the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Migration Museum and the South Australian Museum. Judging from the feedback, these tours were the highlight of the Meeting.
Presentations and photos will be available on EMuUsers.org in the near future. We can also confirm that the location for the 2008 meeting will be the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which is in Wellington, on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 September 2008.
Thanks to all who attended and contributed to this successful Meeting.
Dates for the 2008 EMu Users Meetings
- 2nd UK EMu Users Meeting, April 2008, Natural History Museum, London, England.
- 7th Australasian EMu Users Meeting, 9-10 September 2008, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington).
- 4th North American EMu Users Meeting, 20-22 October 2008, Las Vegas Springs Preserve, USA.
Details will be posted on EMuUsers.org as they firm up.
Natural History Museum, London: Project completed
The implementation of EMu has come to a successful conclusion at the Natural History Museum, London. Five departments - Mineralogy, Entomology, Palaeontology, Zoology and Botany - now manage their collections according to museum-wide processes, including a common loans system and object entry and acquisitions, as well as integrated multimedia. 3.2 million catalogue records exist in the system, with a staggering 13.7 million records in total.
A three year phased implementation was required due to the complexity and the magnitude of the undertaking, which involved significant redesign and extension of several modules. The end result however is that the NHM has one of the most fully integrated museum systems in the world, and certainly the largest, with a standardised, centralised system to manage a vast quantity of the museum's collections.
iMu: EMu self-guided tours for iPods
 KE Software is proud to announce the imminent release of iMu, an iPod interface for EMu that enables visitors to build their own tour of your museum’s collection.
How does it work?
Before visiting your museum's collection in the flesh, visitors browse it online, selecting items of interest as they go. When they're done browsing they download the selected items to their iPod (using iTunes), ready for their visit to your museum. Along with the item narratives, an audio tour is downloaded to their iPod. The tour guides the visitor through your museum, along the shortest path from one item in their selection to the next. A map is displayed for those with a screen and verbal directions are provided. As each item is reached, its narrative is narrated.
Please contact us for more information, including licensing details and what is involved in setting up iMu.
KE's new website
Some may have noticed that KE's website has recently undergone a major, and long-overdue renovation! As well as a new look, content has been updated and reorganised, and new content and functionality have been added.
The KE Homepage can be accessed at http://www.kesoftware.com/, or you can go directly to the EMu Homepage at www.kesoftware.com/emu.
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