On         Fri, 6 Jan 1995 Bob Wildfong <[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>1) Although my own work is in the cataloguing of plants, I imagine that
you
>face the same issues.  I occasionally want to select all of the records
which
>pertain to a certain genus (or family, etc), and this is easy if the genus
 
>name is isolated in a distinct field.
 
What Bob Wildfong needs to accomplish this kind of query is a database
system
that has a programmed hierarchical thesaurus that is used to frame queries.
 
Taxonomy is a perfect application for these systems. All the major
commercial
museum object cataloging programs, namely those sold by Vernon Systems
(Collection), by Questor Systems (Argus) and by Willoughby Asssoc (Mimsy)
provide this facilities.
 
I've even managed (in a limited way) to make the flat file database Q&A
operate
a six or sevel level thesaurus as a gateway to an object catalogue.  What
you
must do is establish the relationship between broader and narrower terms
and
establish a structure that will always enforce these relations.
 
What you don't want to do is to provide just two fields for genus and
species that don't force a defined relationship between the terms that fall
into them and which are not rigidly controlled by an exterior vocabulary
control system.
 
______________________________________
Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont, NY 10538
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