Condition Assessment Tool (CAT)
What is CAT?
CAT stands for Condition Assessment Tool. It is a computer software program developed by the Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) to help heritage organisations better care for their collections. It is designed to be used by people with a wide variety of experience and skills, and who work with all types of collections. Whether you volunteer in your local community museum or work as part of a professional conservation team in a large service, the CAT should prove a useful and straightforward tool.
Originally distributed on a CD-ROM, MGS are now making the CAT available to the wider heritage community via Collections Link. You can download the CAT database as a ‘zipped' folder of files from the link below. Before doing so please read the following notes and review the Guidance document.
Downloading the CAT
In the folder you will find the CAT program and the ‘quick start' facility. Familiarise yourself with the Guidance before downloading the CAT database as it explains all you need to know and do to install and use the software effectively. MGS, as developer of the CAT will keep and maintain the original program. The copy you download now belongs to you and you may adapt it to suit your own specific needs. You will need the following to install the CAT:
- A computer running Microsoft Windows 98 or later.
- Microsoft Access 2000 or later installed on your computer.
Installation instructions
- Click on the link below and save the CAT Installer to your computer. The location is not important as this is a temporary location only.
- Locate the CAT Installer folder on your computer, right click on the highlighted folder and select the Extract All option to ‘unzip' the files.
- Locate the ‘unzipped' CAT Installer folder and double click to open and view the contents.
Inside this folder is a file called setup. Double click on this to begin installation. Simply follow the instructions to install the CAT. - Once you have completed the installation. You can open the CAT by clicking on the Start menu of your computer, select Programs, then CAT.
More detailed information on installing and setting up the CAT can be found in the guidance manual (Vista users may encounter problems installing the CAT - if you would like a CD-Rom version sent to you please contact Museums Galleries Scotland 0131 5504100 or lucya@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk).
The MGS factsheets below are referred to in the CAT Guidance Notes. Some have slightly differet titles
Condition Assessment Tool (CAT)
Copyright (C) 2005 Museums Galleries Scotland
You can contact the Museums Galleries Scotland at: inform@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. Copy of the GNU General Public License.
