Current Location
The location of where an item is in real time. This is a required element for inventory under SPECTRUM.
The visual inventory covers five storage locations in the Wellcome Collection and Trust sites at 183 and 215 Euston Road, respectively. The solander store, plan chest store and framed art stores in 183, the drawer store in 183 and the drawers/chests in the basement of 215. In 2024, we also acquired storage space at artstore.
Each storage type has its own letter (S for Solander, P for plan chest, D for drawer and R for racking stores), with a number denoting the location within that series (column, shelf, left or right hand side), e.g. S4.8L B3 (Solander column 4, shelf 8, left hand side, box B3), or R10L (rack 10, left hand side). Material at artstore is coded to CLW.
As each location is unique, it therefore denotes the room in which that location is.
2020 - Changes to Location Hierarchies
The Collections Storage Officer has gradually been introducing new location hierarchies to improve collections management and location control for material. Other benefits include improved retrieval work-flows and improved access in general.
This work is ongoing and with inventory in progress we have been looking at ways we can update location authorities before or after inventory of a store or area is complete to ensure quality control and accurate location data. The impact on inventory is that location data needs to be updated in both Quickbase and Sierra which can be time consuming and needs to be followed up with spot checks to ensure data is accurate. We then have to create locations for the new location hierarchy in Quickbase and link it to data that recognises a room code in the new system is a store prefixed by a letter in the current system being phased out.
Quickbase therefore is working with current location data as per the current system of stores prefixed by a letter and new location authority hierarchies.
The new location hierarchies are formatted to include the building site, room code, furniture, bay number, and then shelf/drawer/container number. For example, 183;4.16;FR;10;4
4.16 in this scenario is in lieu of the use of 'Plan chest store' or 'P store'.
New locations are also being generated by the storage officer, where no agreed location name was given. I.e. certain display areas have items checked out to exhibition. But a status of 'on display' is not a location.
The timescale for these changes to be complete are in line with the timescales of the inventory project.
Catalogued Material
For catalogued material the current location in Quickbase has been imported from Sierra. No additional input from the inventory team is required, unless the location is incorrect and needs updating. Should this be the case, the location should be updated on both Quickbase and Sierra.
Exception: We may need to enter this field manually for items which don’t come through to Quickbase, from Sierra. This may be in the case of multiple linked items or those with odd/incomplete locations on Sierra.
Barcode vs Current Location
At the time of our import into Quickbase, current location data was taken from the 'barcode' field in Sierra. In Q4 of 2024, data was migrated from the 'barcode' field to the 'current location' field in Sierra, the 'barcode' data was then incrementally deleted by storage area. All locations for visual material should be recorded in the 'current location' field on the item record. If an object moves or you are updating a location change you should update the 'former location' field on Sierra to capture the 'move'.
Uncatalogued Material
For uncatalogued material a location will always need to be generated. Locations that exist in Quickbases's location table can be selected.
Location Table
N.B. Should the relevant location not be available on Quickbase, we can create a new one in the location table. Click on the 'Locations' heading (top left) – click New Container (top right) – insert new location, making sure the format complies with existing location codes – Save and close.
Additionally, record the type of container, box weight (if recorded) in container comments. You can also select whether or not the container is overfilled or empty.
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