User:BTMM Eric
I'm the Brighton Toy and Model Index's Editor.
I've been a volunteer at the Brighton Toy and Model Museum since late 2010, mostly working on researching and developing content for the Index.
I'm also currently moonlighting as "WikiAdmin", but someone else will probably inherit that ID at some point. Oh, and I was also "FH150" for the Frank Hornby project, for all the edits that I was doing as Project Officer.
Current Edits
I'm currently producing what might appear to be a fairly "random" selection of pages, to try to make sure that we have at least a few examples listed from each category and cabinet. This is also a "discovery" exercise ... often the only way to find what special treatment particular types of exhibit need ... special categories or templates, or specially-formatted data ... is by trying a few examples. So, for instance, after inputting a few Dinky and Spot-On cars, it became clear that the model numbers for those items were critical, and that there needed to be dedicated SpotOn and DinkyToy templates, and that those templates needed to be ready and in place before anyone started inputting the rest of those items in earnest.
So if you're working on a specific cabinet or subject (say: dolls, or puppets), and I jump in and do a couple of random pages, don't worry, I'm not trying to disrupt your workflow or take over your section, I'm just testing whether we have all the organisational infrastructure in place that that section might need. Some of the pages that I've been doing are fully worked-up, others are placeholder test pages. Many include a fair amount of background information on the item that was modelled (such as an original steam locomotive), but are still sadly lacking the sort of information on the actual Museum exhibit (such as the item's manufacturer and date), that other museum staff will uncover as they work through their exhibit lists more methodically.
I've also tried to make sure that we have at least placeholder pages for the items on Chris' "Director's Choice" list, and I've tried to make sure that we also have a decent number of examples listed for some significant types and categories that are well represented in the Museum, but which cut across the existing cabinet organisation ... there are some particular manufacturers who made many types of toy that appear in several cabinets (like Märklin and Bing), and there are some notable categories (like the set of streamlined trains) where the Museum has a really great collection, but it's scattered over a lot of different display areas, and I've been trying to pull a few of those together.
So if you're a Museum person, feel free to re-edit any pages or test pages that I might have done, and even if I seem to have produced quite a large page, don't assume that it doesn't need your further input. For instance, the "Sooty" page currently gives nice links on the background to Sooty, but doesn't yet say who the manufacturer of our actual puppets are, or give the background or date - this info still needs to be dug out of the files, and/or the Museum's reference library.
Site statistics:
3,372 "Museum Exhibit" Pages
