Keynote Presenter: Bob Futernick <bfuternick@famsf.org>

Keynote Title: Using Technology to Manage Collections

This keynote will report on the development of a large database/imagebase which brings visual access of art to the world-at-large through the Internet and World Wide Web. Discussion of how museum workers used a three year closure for seismic upgrading of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor as the opportunity for a comprehensive collection management project. Most culture institutions can only exhibit a small percentage of their holdings. For space reasons, everything else remains in storage. By adapting a variety of methods and equipment to inventory, measure, track and photograph over 80,000 works of art, the Fine Arts Museums is now able to share all of its collections on the World Wide Web, signaling a new kind of access to art. The principles and tools used in the project are applicable to a wide variety of other collections in areas outside the arts area.

Presenters Bio:
Bob Futernick is the Chairman of the Conservation Departments at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco where he has worked since 1975. He is also Director of Collection Imaging and designer of the Museums' collection management software. In recent years his work has centered around linking collection preservation with collection use and access. He is interested in promoting cross-functional teams in the museum and softening the boundaries that separate departments.