Hi Kathy

a truly interesting question to ponder.  Both for "how big is big?" and "how
do you measure it?"

Do you count a series of unrelated databases on several unconnected servers
as one database?  Or is a single database defined as what you can search fron
a single workstation with single SQL query?  Are image files stored near- or
off-line considered part of the db?  Is it number of records or number of
artifacts/specimens represented or disk storage space required?

BTW, my databases won't come even close 45,000 records (70,000 artifacts) in
a single database.  However, we do have five other databases (archives,
libraries, conservation, images, and archaeology).

Richard Gerrard
Registrar, Toronto Historical Board

Katherine Jones wrote:

> Dear museum-lers:
>
> Those of us in the Office of Information Services and Technology at the
> Peabody Museum have had reason to ponder this question in the last week.
>
>         Do we have the largest museum database
>
>         (a) in the world?
>         (b) in North America?
>         (c) in New England?
>         (d) at Harvard?
>
>         Our database is 1.6 million records and weighs in at 1.6 GB.
>
> Let us know if we hold the record or not.  If yours is larger, we want to
> meet you and talk about how large databases work.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kathy
>
> Katherine Jones
> Assistant Director
> Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
> Harvard University
> 11 Divinity Avenue
> Cambridge, MA  02138
> (617) 495-1969
> (617) 495-7535 FAX
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.peabody.harvard.edu