On Fri, 27 Oct 1995, James H Pfeiffenberger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>My name is Jim Pfeiffenberger and I work part time with a small community
>museum in Seward, Alaska.  I have two questions.  First, we are planning
>to buy museum database software for the Mac platform.  Does anyone have
>any experience/opinions on "Accession" by Oak Tree Software Specialists?
>This is the program we are very close to buying.  Ant other ideas for the
>Mac platform?

We, too, use database software for the Mac platform.  We looked into
Accession when we were considering a database several years ago but chose
against it because, at the time, they didn't have the capability to
incorporate images.  I remember Oak Tree was very helpful with supplying
names of other museums who've used their software, so you might contact
them, if you haven't already.

We ended up using a custom-designed database based on 4th Dimension
software.  It's turned out to be quite successful for our needs.  Of
course, there are pros and cons to developing your own system.  The main
thing we learned from the entire experience is the importance of figuring
out how you're going to use your database so you can find a program that
let's you do as much of that work as possible.  And remember, once you get
it, you'll continually be thinking of ways to improve it and new things you
can do with the data (we're constantly "tweaking" our database).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  Best of luck!

Kate Desulis                                  (312) 322-0821 phone
The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum    (312) 322-2257 fax
1300 S. Lake Shore Drive                      [log in to unmask]

Chicago, Illinois 60605
http://astro.uchicago.edu/adler/