PastPerfect training

This month the Northwest Railway Museum partnered with Savor Snoqualmie Valley and Two Rivers School to conduct PastPerfect collections software training for volunteers from local historical societies.  The training was hosted in the computer lab at Two Rivers School; the Museum's Registrar Cristy Lake led the effort.

PastPerfect is the defacto standard collections database used worldwide by more than 10,000 museums for cataloging museum collections.  Catalog records include provenance, condition, location, purpose, and even photographs.  Examples of catalog records are included in the Northwest Railway Museum's new online lantern exhibit.

For PastPerfect to be effective, it is essential that museums have staff and volunteers trained in its use.  In the Snoqualmie Valley, a half dozen museums use the program, but most have only part-time volunteers that have not had formal training opportunities. During this training session, volunteers from Duvall Historical Society, Fall City Historical Society, Snoqualmie Valley Museum and the Cedar River Watershed EducationCenter all participated.

Ms. Lake is a veteran user of PastPerfect software, and she provided the overview and basic guidance in the use of the software. Two Rivers students helped answer questions and created a friendly atmosphere as everyone worked through the process of creating sample accession and object records.

Thank you Two Rivers School students and Savor Snoqualmie Valley for helping local historical societies modernize their collections cataloging!