WHAT IT'S USED FOR:
The Measurement Type field is used to indicate the type of measurement being recorded for a Packing Unit.
See HOW TO USE IT, below, for specific instructions on entering a measurement type, but it is first important to understand the general concepts involved in recording measurements.
GENERAL CONCEPTS
Accurate measurements consist of four components, the type, the unit of measure, the value and the aspect:
1.Type:
The measurement type indicates whether a specific measurement is the Dimensions, Weight, Volume, Pressure, Speed, etc. of an object. Institutions with only one type of collection (e.g. fine arts) may have only one or two measurement types (e.g. dimensions, or dimensions and weight) whereas institutions with a broad range of collections, or collections of a more technical nature, may have a number of measurement types.
You may wish to create two terms for dimensions, e.g. 'Dimensions (H, W, D)' and 'Dimensions (H & Diam)'. See point 4 below for further information on the various aspects of a measurement type.
| 2. | Unit: |
It is necessary to indicate which unit of measure has been used to measure a Packing Unit. This might be feet and inches, meters and centimetres, kilograms and grams, etc. Vernon CMS allows you to specify a primary and, if desired, a secondary system of measurement for each measurement type, e.g., feet and inches as a primary system, with meters and centimetres as a secondary, or vice versa.
Once you specify a secondary system, you can simply enter measurements in your primary system and Vernon CMS will automatically convert this, and will display the measurement on screen in the primary system, followed by the secondary system in parenthesis, e.g. 63.5cm (25") H.
Even if you specify a primary and secondary system for display on screen, the Reporting Window offers you to opportunity to override these original settings for each report. For instance, Measurement is one of the fields with multiple display variations – i.e. you can choose to display measurement in the primary system only, secondary system only, primary and secondary and so on. This can be especially useful in situations where your institution uses metric, but you are sending an exhibition checklist to an institution that uses the 'Imperial' system of measurement, or vice versa.
The unit of measure does not have to be entered each time you enter a measurement reading for a Packing Unit. It is defined only once, during the process of creating Measurement Type terms. At that time you enter the unit of measure the system will use for storage (see Storage Unit) and the unit of measure the system will use for display (see Display Units). Either of these settings can be adjusted or changed at any time.
Once the unit of measure for a measurement type has been specified, you can simply enter measurements in the Measurement Reading field (e.g. 2 x 5 x 14) and the system will assume these measurements to be in the specified unit of measure (e.g. inches, or centimetres) and will display them as such (e.g. 2 x 5 x 14cm). You can also override this when necessary. See the section on Display Units for more information.
| 3. | Value |
The value is the actual number or measurement you enter in the Measurement Reading field.
The system allows you to specify rules for input (i.e. the way this data can be entered) and rules for output (i.e. the way entered data will be displayed).
Rules for input and output are established during the process of creating Measurement Type terms.
| 4. | Aspect: |
A measurement type can consist of a number of different aspects. Dimensions, for example, usually consist of two or three aspects (height, width and depth, or height and diameter), and if you are a museum of transport, measuring trucks, ships, etc. Weight might consist of the aspects 'Gross Loaded Weight' and 'Net Weight'.
It is necessary to establish rules that will enable the system to know, in each instance, which aspect of a measurement each reading applies to. If, for example, you were to enter 27 x 13 x 12 in the Measurement Reading field, the system would know that these were Dimensions (because you would have entered 'Dimensions' in the Measurement Type field), but would also need some way of knowing which of these is the height, which is the width, etc.
During the process of creating Measurement Type terms, you enter Aspect Delimiters which indicate the order in which measurement readings will be entered. The system then knows that the first aspect will normally be height, the second the width, etc. You can also specify that a number followed by an h, an H, or the word height will be the height; a number followed by a w, a W or the word width will always be the width. Any of these settings can be adjusted or changed at any time.
There may be unusual situations in which an institution would want to create separate Measurement Type terms for Height, Width, Depth, etc. (instead of creating the Measurement Type term 'Dimensions', which has the aspects height, width, depth, etc.). This is, however, generally unnecessary.
Vernon CMS allows you to retrieve Packing Units based on a single aspect of measurement, even if various aspects of measurement have been recorded together, under the umbrella of a particular Measurement Type. For example, even if you have recorded the Dimensions of an object as being 27H x 14W x 3 D, you can still search for objects with a Height of 27 (or less than 27, or greater than 27, or with a range such as from 10 to 30).
In summary...
To record the measurements of a Packing Unit, you must first create terms for measurement type, and while doing so, identify the unit of measure for that type of measurement; indicate the way the measurement should be stored and displayed; and indicate the way the system will know which aspect of measurement is being referenced at any given moment.
Once these parameters have been defined, recording the measurements of a Packing Unit is a simple matter of entering a measurement type term in the Measurement Type field, and enter the actual measurement (i.e. the value) in the Measurement Reading field.
For each measurement you record for a single Packing Unit, the system will record precise and detailed information. For example if you record a Packing Unit as having the dimensions 60 x 65 x 13cm, the system will actually record the following:
Type: Dimensions
Aspect: Height
Unit: Centimetres
Value: 60
Aspect: Width
Unit: Centimetres
Value: 65
Aspect: Depth
Unit: Centimetres
Value: 13
Remember that this is the way the system records information - not the way it displays it. You can specify how you would like measurements to be displayed when creating terms for measurement type.
WHERE TO FIND IT:
The Packing Unit Identification data entry window.
This field is part of the Measurement edit table, which includes Measurement Type, Reading and Notes.
HOW TO USE IT:
If you are unfamiliar with edit tables it is very important to read about them before attempting to edit this field.
Measurement Type is an authority controlled field.
Simply enter the term (or its System ID) in the field if you know it. (If you enter the term incorrectly, or if there is more than one matching term, the Authority Search Window will appear, allowing you to select or search for a term.)
You can also click on the Options Button (or press [Alt + Down Arrow]) to select a term if terms have already been created, or follow instructions for creating Measurement Type terms as required.
Remember that Search Operators are useful search tools, and can be used in this field.
Because this is a multi-value field, more than one entry can be made for a single Packing Unit. For example, you can enter the dimensions, weight and volume measurements of a Packing Unit on separate lines of the field, or the dimensions of a carpet rolled for transport, as well as its dimensions opened for display.
RETRIEVAL:
Full instructions for retrieving objects from the system are covered in the section on Retrieving Data.
REPORTING:
Full instructions for creating reports to view on screen or send to a printer are covered in the section on Reporting. It may, however, be useful to review the following comments about this particular field.
In Group (Down the Page) reports, select Measurement as a field to display. All data in the measurement edit table will be displayed.
In Field (Across the Page) reports Measurement Type can be selected separately as a display field.
Sorting
You can sort Packing Units in your report by Measurement Type. Simply select the field from the list of available sort fields.
