In general, the workflows represent conservation and conservation-related workflows. I would suggest as a next step, identifying the workflows and associated records that constitute the highest priority and have a direct relationship to the primary records of conservation that fall under standards of ethics and practice. Also, once the workflows are vetted, it also seems a worthwhile exercise to map the linkages between various records across the workflows.
I would also define critical or essential records for the first priority of design specification to be those that have the most direct relationship to object state (examinaton/treatment documentation) and impact on objects (analytical testing, exhibition-loan). The workflows can be divided out or grouped into tiers for development, especially since records related to workflows such as donor cultivation, or outreach may fall outside of the scope of conservation documentation and fall under other records management policies, be subject to restrictions, and owned as institutional records by other entities.
The most critical functionality aside from long-term preservation and access to the records, for me and the work of the Yale Library conservators, would be to be able to take independent sets of documents generated through the different workflows and reassemble them as needed into various dossiers or record bundles. - Christine McCarthy, Chief Conservator for Special Collections, Yale University Library
I very much agree with Christine’s comment. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, we recently went through the excise of identifying the core conservation activities and what information the system we are currently developing needs to track. What we came up with is a narrow set of conservation specific data that include detailed description of artwork such as materials and techniques, artwork condition, treatment recommendation, non-treatment recommendations such as handling, storage, exhibition, shipping, travel and emergency response, and treatment documentation.
Since the ConservationSpace project is to integrate conservation documentation capabilities into collections management tools, I, along with my colleagues, will be very interested in seeing where you draw the line between these two sets of often overlapping information. - Tina Tan, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston