Illinois Association of Museums - Collection Management in the Digital Age: Making the Right Choice

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Collection Management in the Digital Age: Making the Right Choice

26 Sep 2025 10:10 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

By: David Bellm, Illinois Association of Museums Volunteer

Of all the decisions museum professionals are faced with, one of the most far-reaching is the choice of what collection management software (CMS) they’ll use for collections care, research access, and digital infrastructure. Although there’s no one “right” answer for every institution, some platforms are better suited than others, depending on each institution’s unique mix of collection size and complexity, staff skills and capacity, and budget. At the same time, museums need to consider their particular long-term goals for publishing, digitization, and interoperability.

With that in mind, here are the key elements to consider in this vital choice, and how to narrow down the possibilities to find the best platform for your needs. We’ll be looking primarily at PastPerfect, TMS (The Museum System), and CatalogIt, comparing their strengths and weaknesses. These are the three most widely used CMS platforms, and their features solidly represent the general capabilities of these systems.

Start with a clear technology strategy

Before you dive into the job of picking a CMS platform, there are some fundamental aspects that need to be considered:

• What workflows need to be supported? (accessioning, loans, conservation, exhibition planning, digital asset management)

• Who will use the system? (curators, registrars, volunteers)

• What other systems must integrate (website, DAM, accounting)

• Do you need a cloud-hosted service or an on-premises solution?

A short technology strategy clarifies whether you need a turnkey hosted product, a highly customizable enterprise system, or something in between. This will quickly narrow your choices. Also consider staffing and change management: an enterprise product may save time long-term but usually requires more upfront training and business-process redesign. For example, relatively small museums often prioritize ease of use and total cost of ownership; large institutions prioritize scalability, integrations, and detailed rights and condition workflows.

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Cloud vs. desktop vs. hybrid

Once you have a solid perspective on the technology strategy you’re working with, you can start to look at what deployment model is best for your needs. Cloud (SaaS) systems provide remote access, automatic backups, and often faster feature rollouts. These features can prove helpful if you have staff or volunteers who work from galleries, storage, or off-site locations. On the flip side, desktop systems can be appealing to institutions with limited budgets or inconsistent internet access, along with teams that want a permanent, locally controlled copy of their data.

Offering somewhat of a middle ground between these two options are hybrid or web-enabled setups. These attempt to provide users with the best of both worlds but can introduce complexity in setup and ongoing support. For that reason, a modern web-based or cloud system will usually be simpler to maintain if you plan to publish a searchable online collection or want to give remote access to researchers.

PastPerfect — the familiar, budget-friendly workhorse

Of all the most popular CMS platforms, PastPerfect has been a staple for many small to mid-sized museums for decades. And there are good reasons for this. It has a well-deserved reputation for being affordable, relatively easy to learn, and oriented toward the basic needs of cataloging objects, photos, archives, and simple donor and exhibition records.

PastPerfect is available in a desktop version and a hosted web edition. The company also emphasizes straightforward pricing packages aimed at small institutions. Adding further luster to PastPerfect’s appeal is the fact that it uses a straightforward data model with four catalog types — objects, photos, archives, and library — that align well with common small-museum needs. This can help simplify training, which is a vital concern for small institutions with limited resources. Additionally, PastPerfect benefits from a strong user community. A vast array of small museums rely on it, so there’s a wealth of how-to advice and peer knowledge available.

All that said, PastPerfect does have limitations. Its structure is less flexible when it comes to complex workflows, making it harder to adapt to institution-specific data models or more advanced processes such as conservation and loans management. Along with this, organizations considering a transition to a more robust, web-native platform in the future should be mindful of the time and cost involved in migrating their data. And, from a user-experience standpoint, PastPerfect can feel dated compared to modern, web-based systems (a web-based version is available, however).

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TMS (The Museum System) — the enterprise-grade solution

Developed by Gallery Systems, TMS (The Museum System) is considered by most to be the enterprise-grade side of the collections management spectrum. It’s a sophisticated, web-based suite designed for large museums, university collections, and organizations that need deep functionality, seamless integration with digital asset management, online publishing, and advanced reporting. Widely adopted by major institutions, TMS supports complex workflows across conservation, loans, exhibitions, provenance research, and multi-site deployments.

Of all TMS’s advantages, arguably the most important are its robust, configurable workflows. The system is built to handle complicated institutional requirements, such as detailed conservation histories, complex loans and rights management, and fine-grained security with multiple user roles. In addition, TMS is designed to be integration-ready, with the aim of more effective use of digital asset management systems (DAM), online publishing platforms, and other enterprise software. This allows organizations to centralize their digital infrastructure.

However, there are trade-offs to TMS’s impressive capability. For one thing, the system demands significant costs for licensing, implementation, and staff training. This makes it generally more suited to institutions that have relatively large budgets and the ability to plan for long-term deployment. At the same time, TMS doesn’t have the “out-of-the-box” simplicity that smaller organizations may prefer — its complexity can be overwhelming for smaller museums or teams with limited technical expertise.

CatalogIt — the modern, cloud-native middle ground

Among this platform’s many strengths are its cloud-native and mobile-friendly design — it’s said to be the first CMS designed from scratch with these in mind. At the same time, it delivers the core features museums need, including condition and conservation records, loans, exhibition planning, and image handling.

Further strengthening its position as somewhat of a middle-ground CMS choice, CatalogIt is marketed as a migration destination for PastPerfect users. This potentially makes it suitable for small-to-medium museums that want museum-grade features paired with a more intuitive user experience.

Nonetheless, CatalogIt does have some limitations. For one thing, it hasn’t been around as long as PastPerfect and TMS, so it has a smaller installed base. This means it could be less likely a new hire has experience in it, which can add to training needs. Along with this, there may be fewer opportunities to share ideas and support with other museums. And although CatalogIt provides robust core functionality, museums with very specialized workflows or heavy integration requirements may still find an enterprise solution like TMS more suitable.

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Other selection considerations

When selecting a collections management system, there are several additional considerations to keep in mind. You’ll need to think about data portability and adherence to standards: insist on export formats such as CSV or XML, and ideally, exports that align with SPECTRUM or CDWA standards to ensure long-term portability. You should also carefully confirm that multimedia assets, including high-resolution images and TIFFs, along with rights metadata, are stored and exported in a manner that’s effective for your organization.

You should also take a close look at integrations. This is especially important if you plan to publish to an online collection or connect to a DAM. TMS is explicitly built for robust DAM and web-publishing integration. Cloud-first platforms like CatalogIt generally offer APIs and dedicated web-publishing modules. PastPerfect provides web editions and hosting options but may require additional steps for large-scale online publishing.

Institutions should also evaluate the total cost of ownership rather than focusing only on license fees. This includes accounting for data migration, staff training, annual hosting and support, and professional services for configuration. Perhaps unsurprisingly, PastPerfect typically offers the lowest upfront licensing costs, while enterprise systems like TMS usually demand higher expenses for implementation and support. Worth noting, cloud vendors such as CatalogIt typically operate on a subscription basis. This can make costs more predictable but ongoing — you continue to pay as long as you’re using the system.

Institutions should also consider how security and backups will be handled on their CMS. On desktop installations, the museum itself is responsible for these. Cloud-based vendors generally include backups, uptime guarantees, and routine maintenance as part of their service.

Which is right for your museum?

Ultimately, there’s no such thing as a perfect CMS. You can only hope to find the best choice for your current needs, future ambitions, and the resources you can provide for the task. That said, the three most popular CMS platforms provide a fairly clear set of paths that most museums can work with. PastPerfect remains a reliable, budget-friendly platform for smaller institutions and those who seek a familiar workflow. And for museums that require deep configurability and broad integrations, TMS is considered to be the enterprise standard. Splitting the lanes between these two is CatalogIt, an attractive newcomer for organizations that want modern, cloud-first access and a user-friendly interface without leaping to enterprise scale.

In the end, the best CMS platform is the one that empowers your staff, strengthens your workflows, and grows with your institution’s vision. By facing the decision with clear priorities and realistic expectations, you can choose a system that not only meets today’s challenges but also supports tomorrow’s opportunities.

Sources and additional reading:

Canadian Heritage Information Network

“Guidelines for choosing a collections management system”

https://www.canada.ca/en/heritage-information-network/services/collections-management-systems/guidelines-choose-cms.html

Collections Trust

“TMS Collections and eMuseum”

https://collectionstrust.org.uk/software/tms-collections/

Cooper Hewitt Labs

“Mass Digitization: Digital Asset Management”

https://labs.cooperhewitt.org/2016/mass-digitization-digital-asset-management/

SaaSHub

“PastPerfect VS The Museum System”