Toledo Museum Of Art Uses KeyWatcher System

  • Mar 10, 2011

With a collection of more than 30,000 works of art and 2010 attendance surpassing 430,000 the Toledo Museum of Art is a thriving cultural and educational center for northwest Ohio.

To help protect the visitors, staff and treasures, the museum has deployed a comprehensive security system that integrates policies, procedures, personnel and hardware, including the Morse Watchmans key control and management system.

“Security is as important as the curatorial function in an art museum and key control plays a significant role in our day to day security operations,” said Tim Szczepanski, chief of protective services for the Toledo Museum of Art. “The KeyWatcher system enables us to tighten our security procedures because of its ease of use and its tracking and reporting capabilities.”

In addition to regular employees, the museum is also home to a number of temporary staff including interns, scholars and researchers, all of whom might need access to non-public areas.

To accommodate these needs, Szczepanski’s department can easily program the KeyWatcher system to allow selected individuals to access a key from the key cabinet.

The authorization can be established for a defined period or for certain recurring times or days, and can be integrated with the building’s card access system. Permission levels can be set for each user code, ranging from a basic level to the highest authorization level which allows complete access to all functions.
 
“The convenience and flexibility of the system lets us control who has keys or access to the keys,” Szczepanski said. “For example, when programmed into the system, the researcher who needs to be in a staff-only area after hours or the intern who needs access to a certain space can do so by simply entering their PIN code to open the cabinet and retrieve the key. Security doesn’t have to come and open the door for them and we have a record of all access activity.”

The KeyWatcher system automatically records all transactions, including user, date and time of checkout and return.

At any time, the museum’s Protective Services department can view who currently has which keys out and for what area, or who has had keys out, for what areas and when. Szczepanski added that the tracking function has also resolved the problem of employees forgetting to return keys and the problem of lost keys.

“The tracking functions allow us to regularly remind staff who neglect to return keys,” he said. “After one or two reminders, the problem usually goes away. In fact, since we have had the KeyWatcher system we have not lost one set of keys.”

The custom programmed activity reports, available through Morse Watchmans KeyPro software, also help to keep Protective Services informed and better able to identify unusual activity. Key movement is traced by time, date and user code, and audit reports track keys in use, overdue keys and inconsistent key usage. In addition, the built-in scheduler allows Protective Services to program the system to automatically download all data to a secure PC within the department.

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