Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, and safe New Year! 

If you are in the U.S., you are likely gearing up for the Semiquincentennial events at your organization and in your community. The 250th Anniversary of our nation's founding presents opportunities for both small and large organizations to share well-researched history through exhibitions and educational programs. This year also gives organizations the opportunity to collect the material cultural that documents and commemorates the year's events for the future. Just like 50 years ago during the Bicentennial, there will be plenty of physical artifacts to collect; however this year much of the documentation and events' materials will be in digital format. Digital photographs, documents, audio files, video files and artworks will become part of museums', archives' and historical societies' collections. Like other collections, they need to be cataloged and preserved. 

To learn more about 250th Anniversary events nationally, please visit the official website at https://america250.org/. 

AASLH Core Issues Briefing Series

Dates: January 7, 14, 21, 28, February 4, 11

Location/Time: Webinars on Wednesdays at 3pm ET

Website: https://learn.aaslh.org/products/core-issues-briefing-series-webinar-bundle

National Council on Public History, Ethics, AI, and the Public Humanities Series

Dates: January 29, February 12, 26, March 17

Location/Time: Zoom Meetings will be held various times

Website: https://community.ncph.org/event/AIHumanities

Small Museum Association 42nd Annual Conference: Climate Change

Dates: February 16-18

Location: York, PA

Website: https://smallmuseum.org/Conference/

AAM Museum Advocacy Day

Dates: February 23-24 (Register by January 16th)

Location: Arlington, VA and Washington, DC

Website: https://www.aam-us.org/programs/museums-advocacy-day/

Museums Canada 2026 Summit, Museums: Rock Solid

Dates: April 19 - 21 

Location: St. John's Newfoundland

Website: https://www.museumscanada.ca/stjohns-2026

If you are looking for more information on museum practice, working in public history, and resources for the field, the Western Museums Association has compiled a list of upcoming webinars at https://westmuse.org/webinars-events. The events are hosted by different organizations from across the U.S. including other regional museum organizations.

As more digital objects are created and valued as part of our history and culture, museums, historical societies, and archives are collecting them in greater numbers. These digital materials come in a variety of formats such as documents, artworks, photographs, and electronic sound and video recordings. More and more collected items are "born digital" rather than "digitized" from physical collections. Many organizations are also collecting digital copies of documents, artworks, and prints while the owner retains the original items.

These digital materials should be cataloged like their physical equivalents. When naming and classifying digital objects, it is important to group them with physical items that have the same use, and distinguish them as digital. For instance, digital images (photographs) are categorized within the broader concept of photographs, just like photographic prints and film negatives. In the Object Name field they should be given the term "Photograph." As a cross reference, a second Object Name field can be filled with "Document, Digital".  

For more information on naming and classifying digital collections, please refer to the Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging User Guide. Information on "Digital Objects" is in the "Nomenclature cataloging conventions" section and the "Cross-indexing" sub-section.

"Document, Digital" is already included in Web Edition's Lexicon. As a PastPerfect 5.0 user, you can add it to the Lexicon. Go to Setup | Lexicon and click "Add Category, Class or Term". Click "Add Primary Term" and type "Document, Digital" in the Primary Term field. Then choose the Category "Communication Artifacts" and Classification "Documentary Artifacts". Click "Add New Primary Term".

When cataloging digital objects, you will want to capture both traditional information like collection, creator, date created, cataloged by, cataloged date, place(s), event(s), subjects, search terms, and people, as well as specific data such as file format (JPEG, TIFF, PDF, spreadsheet, Word document, MP4, etc.), size, durable storage location, copyright, maintenance notes (how stored, when and how backed up, when and if transferred to a newer format), and original vs. copy. If the item is a copy, you will want to note the location and ownership of the original as well as other copies.

In PastPerfect, you will be able to search the additional Object Name fields through keyword searches and queries. To add additional Object Name fields for queries in PastPerfect Web Edition, you can select the Lexicon.Object Name 2 and Lexicon.Object Name 3 fields in Settings | Catalog Filter & Option Fields. In PastPerfect 5.0, you can select the Object Name 2 and 3 fields in Setup | Query Fields. 

For in-depth information on the how to manage digital collections, AASLH offers a low-cost webinar from presenter Leigh Grinstead: https://learn.aaslh.org/products/recorded-webinar-the-how-tos-of-digital-collections-management.

At the start of each new year, we recommend you back up and perform a full Reindex to make sure yearly dues and donation totals are correctly calculated for Contacts. Even if you are not using Contacts in PastPerfect 5.0, creating a backup and performing a Reindex is a good idea!

If your organization is using PastPerfect on multiple workstations, make sure all users close PastPerfect before performing the steps below.

1. Go to the main PastPerfect computer or a workstation with a fast and reliable network connection.
2. Open PastPerfect.
3. From the Main Menu, click "Hard Drive Backup" and then click "Backup Data to Hard Drive". This step should be done every time before you Reindex.
4. Once the backup has completed successfully, exit back to the Main Menu.
5. Click "Reindex".
6. On the Reindex screen, make sure all files are selected, including Spelling Dictionary, Rebuild Catalogs, and Keyword List.
7. Click "Start Reindex Now". This process may take several minutes.
8. Once the Reindex is complete, exit back to the Main Menu.
9. You can now begin using the program again.

If you have any questions about this process or run into any issues, please contact our support office.

As the new year begins, now is a good time to consider collections management projects you want to undertake this year. One of these projects may be an inventory. PastPerfect offers an optional Inventory Manager upgrade for PastPerfect 5.0 that allows you to create inventory lists, print inventory worksheets, produce barcodes, and more. You can learn more about Inventory Manager on our website or by contacting our sales team at 1-800-562-6080.

To create an inventory list, click "Inventory Manager" on the Main Menu under Optional Features. Then click "Create Inventory List".

You'll start by selecting the parameters for what you want to include on the list. You can select what catalogs you want include by placing checks in the boxes next to the catalogs. If you only want to include items with a specific Status or Collection, you can type into the field or select from the authority files. You also have the option to include items from all locations or only include items from a specific location.  

Next you can select items to exclude from the list based on whether they are on an outgoing or incoming loan, or currently on exhibit by checking the box next to the options. You can also exclude items with a specific Status.

Finally, you can select the sampling criteria, which can be all items in your PastPerfect program, a percentage of items, a fixed number of items, or all items that haven't been inventoried since a specific date. Limiting the scope of your inventory is helpful for ensuring a portion of your collection is accounted for and in the right locations if a full inventory is not possible.

Once you've selected your parameters, click the "Create List Now" button. This will open the Inventory Control folder in the Catalog List Manager, where you will see an Inventory List generated with the date and time.

Double click on a list name to open the list. On the bottom left, click the "Print Inventory Worksheet" button. Select one of the three inventory worksheet layouts and then print the worksheet.

Once you've completed your inventory, return to the list. You can then perform actions such as marking all records on the list as inventoried or update the location for all records.

For more information, check out the Inventory Manager and Catalog Lists chapters in our PastPerfect 5.0 User Guide.

An important part of collections maintenance is conducting regular inventories to ensure your items are properly accounted for. PastPerfect Web Edition comes with a built-in Inventory Sampling List feature that you can use to generate a list of items to be inventoried.

To create an Inventory Sampling List, click Catalogs in the blue navigation bar and then click Catalog Lists & Inventory. On the Query screen, click the "Create Inventory Sampling List" button. 

On this screen, you'll set the parameters for what records to include on your list. You can choose to select only items within certain catalogs or items with a specific Status, Collection, or Location. Place a check next to the options you want to use, then click the authority file icon to choose the value to limit the selection. You can also limit the records that appear on the list by Last Inventoried Date or Dataset.  

You also have the option to exclude items from appearing on the list based on certain criteria. Items that are on an Incoming Loan, Outgoing Loan, or Exhibit can be excluded, along with items with a specific Status or items that are currently on Home Location or Temporary Location. Place a check next to any of the options you want to use.

Once you've chosen what items to include or exclude, you can select the Sampling Criteria for an Inventory Sampling List. Depending on the size of your collection you may still end up with an overwhelming number of records even after choosing to only include items that match certain parameters or to exclude items. Setting the Sampling Criteria can help to make doing the inventory more manageable. You can either select all items that match the parameters you set, a percentage of matching items, or a fixed number of matching items.

Once you're done setting the parameters for your Inventory Sampling List, give your list a name and assign it a List Category and List Manager. Then click the "Create List Now" button.  

The list will now appear as the first record in the grid on the Contact Lists & Inventory - Query screen. Click on the list name to open the list. You can then perform actions such as printing an inventory check list or marking the records on the list as inventoried. You can learn more about working with catalog lists in our Web Edition User Guide.

Contact Lists helps you organize and communicate with groups of contacts, such as donors, members, and volunteers. Once records are on a list, you can generate letters or emails, produce mailing labels, export the list to CSV, and print the list in different layouts.

For information on how-to create and populate Contacts Lists, please see the article "Contact Lists: Create a List" in our Summer 2025 Newsletter. For information on Contact Lists' output options, such as producing letters and labels, exporting information to CSV, and printing reports, please see the article "Contact Lists: Output Options" in our Fall 2025 Newsletter. This article covers the additional functions available to help you manage Contact Lists that are not covered in previous articles.

The Contact Lists - Query screen displays all lists created by any user in Web Edition. As the number of lists grow, you may want to use the Filter function to narrow the number of lists displayed. You also have the ability to change the sort order for the grid.

Find Lists

You can use the Query screen's Filter function to locate a list. You can find a list based on the List Name, List Category, List Manager, Created date and whether a list is Private and/or Locked. Building filters to find lists is similar to using filters in other program areas. You can learn more about working with filters in our Web Edition User Guide.

Sort Lists

The grid on the Contact Lists - Query screen enables you to browse through lists created by users in your program. You can change the page size to view 10, 20 or 50 lists in the grid. You can also sort by the grid's fields to view lists in a different order. Clicking one of the column headers will sort the lists from A-Z. Clicking the same column header again will sort the list from Z-A.

Once you have created a Contact List, you can choose to mark a list Private and/or Locked. These options can be changed while editing a Contact List.

Mark a List as Private

Marking a Contact List as Private restricts all users except for the List Manager. While you are editing a list to mark it as Private, you can update the List Manager if needed before saving the list. Private lists can also be locked.

Mark a List as Locked

Marking a Contact List as locked prevents records from being added or removed from the list by any users, including the List Manager. Locked lists can also be private.

After you have added records to a Contact List, you can continue to update the list by adding, appending, subtracting, or removing records while in Edit mode.

Remove All Records

If you want to clear a list, you can use Remove All Records to remove all contacts at once.

Add Records

Use Add Records to add additional contacts using the Filter function or by selecting contacts individually from the grid.

Append Records

If you have multiple lists you want to merge to create a larger list, you can use Append Records to add contacts from multiple lists. You can start from a new Contact List or use an existing Contact List.

Subtract Records

You can selectively remove contacts from a list using Subtract Records. This will allow you to remove records from a list that appear on another list.

For more information, view the Web Edition User Guide section on Contact Lists.

Curious about upgrading to PastPerfect Web Edition? We invite you to register for our one hour informational webinar that walks through the collections and contacts capabilities of our cloud-based software. You can attend a scheduled live session or watch our on-demand recording at your convenience. Register for either webinar here: https://museumsoftware.com/demo.html.

After the webinar, if you think Web Edition is the right choice for your organization, contact the team at webedition@museumsoftware.com to get started on the next steps.