At 11:41 AM 1/2/97 -0600, you wrote:
>What computer program does the Field Museum use for its collections records?
>(Anthropology Dept. specifically?)
>
>

It is only because the spirit of colleagiality is (at least today)
outweighing the embarrasment of airing dirty linen in public that I
can respond:

The Field Museum uses an inhouse system based on C-base, which has
no query language and (as far as I can tell) is only vaguely relational
(like second cousins once removed).  The Anthropology department data
was entered by hired guns about 20 years ago and never proof-read.  A
later expansion of fields was not accompanied by a corresponding re-entry
of data.  The result is that much of our data in incomplete and/or
inaccurate.  The system is basically usable in that we have a record
for each object and we are (more-or-less) systematically cleaning up
the data as we go along.  Various projects have moved this along at a
greater or lesser speed.  For example, to respond to the requirements of
NAGPRA we spent about 3 years working on the North American data and it is
now probably close to 95% accurate.  A NEH-funded storage project is also
resulting in a certain amount of cleanup of the data.  Volunteers, interns,
etc. all help.

Because there is no query capability built in, each search needs to have
its own program written by our Computer Department.  At this point we
have approximately two dozen available programs for reports and editing
purposes, but anything out of the ordinary requires new code to be written.

Needless to say, we have begun looking for a better system and hope to
have one in place in the next 2-3 years.  I hope this helps.

Janice Klein
Registrar, The Field Museum