Procedures

Alongside collection data (Objects, Entities, Places, Occurrences, Collections, Storage Locations), Katalon also manages processes and transactions around the holdings: loans, acquisitions, conservation, or intake review.

Such procedures are relevant daily in museums, archives, and libraries — for insurance, location management, reporting obligations, and institutional memory.

What is a procedure?

A Procedure (internally: Procedure) describes a time-bounded process on one or more objects. It has:

a procedure type (e.g. outgoing loan, conservation, acquisition)
a status (draft → active → completed or cancelled)
a start and end date (including the return deadline for loans)
a reference number (for internal file numbers or external correspondence)
free metadata fields (configurable via the schema engine)
links to objects, entities, and places via the relation system

Procedures are not Occurrences. A historical exhibition or performance is an Occurrence; the loan agreement or transport for an exhibited object is a Procedure.

Pre-configured procedure types

Katalon ships with six field-tested types:

Type	Label	Typical scenario
`loan_out`	Outgoing loan	Own object goes to an external institution
`loan_in`	Incoming loan	External object comes in-house for exhibition
`acquisition`	Acquisition	Purchase, donation, transfer into the collection
`conservation`	Restoration / conservation	Conservation examination or treatment
`object_entry`	Intake review	Provisional acceptance for assessment or selection
`deaccession`	Deaccession	Disposal, sale, return, or deaccessioning

In addition, any number of institution-specific procedure types can be created under Configuration → Subtypes for the Procedures type.

Lifecycle and status

A procedure goes through fixed phases:

Draft (draft): planning the procedure. Mandatory fields may be incomplete.
Active (active): the procedure is underway (e.g. a loan is in transit, conservation is in progress).
Completed (completed): the action has ended, the object has returned or been permanently acquired.
Cancelled (cancelled): the procedure did not go ahead (e.g. a loan request was declined).

Status changes on objects

When completing a procedure, Katalon suggests matching status changes for linked objects:

For loan_out, the system suggests setting the collection status from On loan back to Active.
For acquisition, the system suggests setting the collection status from In progress to Active.

The suggestion can be confirmed or left unchanged.

Integrity rule for `loan_out`

Katalon ensures that an object cannot be part of two active outgoing loans (loan_out) at the same time. An attempt is blocked with a clear message.

Schema fields for procedures

Each procedure type can be equipped with its own fields under Configuration → Schemas:

For conservation: condition report, conservation goal, materials used, workshop notes.
For loan_out: insurance value, transport conditions, conservation requirements, approval notes.
For acquisition: purchase price, resolution number, funder, mode of acquisition.