Brooklyn's Progress
February 2003

Sachs Associates, a Brooklyn-based information systems consulting firm, is please to announce that it served as the technical adviser for the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s recently completed online public access catalog system. The online catalog provides museum staff with easy access to research materials held in the art libraries and archives. The Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA) is working towards making the online catalog available to the public on the internet sometime in 2003.

Emily Sachs, President of Sachs Associates, helped the museum assess its requirements for a library system, create a Request for Proposals, and navigate among various software vendors.  "Purchasing a large software
package can be a daunting prospect since so much is at stake" said Ms. Sachs.  "There is a lot of information about features and functions offered by different vendors to research and assess. We were delighted to be able to guide the museum through the process and help them to make an appropriate selection. They have an incredibly knowledgeable and devoted staff and were great to work with."

Deirdre Lawrence, BMA’s Principal Librarian and Coordinator of Research Services, said "Emily Sachs brought a lot of humor and energy to the project. She helped us figure out which software would work best for us
and drove a hard bargain on the museum’s behalf to meet our tight budgets." Ms. Sachs continued "This is the first Brooklyn-based engagement we have done and we’re delighted to have been able to work help the museum choose the right technology."

The Brooklyn Museum of Art supports two research libraries and an archive that contain books and other materials relating to the Museum's collections and the broader world of art and cultural history. Together,

the non-circulating Libraries contain over 250,000 volumes and constitute the fifth largest art museum library in the nation, with particular strengths in the art of North and South America, Africa, Asia, Egypt, Islam, and the Ancient Near East.

Special collections of the libraries include: fashion and costume sketches; documentary photographs of Mayan archaeological sites, and 19th Century photographic views of Europe and America. The library also has a special collection of books created by artists and an archive of
material on all artists currently or historically working in Brooklyn.

The Libraries and Archives are available to the Museum staff, as well as to the public by appointment.

Working as the client’s representative, Sachs Associates helps clients make cost-effective decisions about information technology strategies, including recruiting
staffing, developing budgets, and managing implementation teams. Sachs Associates prepares Requests for Proposals and helps clients evaluate and negotiate with vendors. Before launching Sachs Associates, Emily Sachs was president of State of the Art, Inc., a downtown Manhattan
consulting firm with proactive methods for preventing computer downtime.

Sachs has worked with clients in arts/culture, media/advertising, architecture/construction, financial services, and government. Sachs received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from Yale.

For further information, please contact Emily Sachs, at (718) 230-3634 or Sachs.Assoc@verizon.net.