Friends:

I am interested in hearing from anyone out there, who has  had experience in
operating, coping and perhaps flourishing in the use of a Library Information
system for the documentation of material culture collections. In particular,
what are the pleasures or pitfalls of  using MARC format Coding to document the
objects to standards similar to our Library colleagues.

In so many respects we have the requirements for similar functionality
-acquisition, reservation and circulation. As well we need other distinct
management functions of  loans reservation, conservation, risk management,
exhibit tracking and processing, audit of use, etc. which may or may not be
replictalted inan ILS.

We are very interested at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in the principle
of  "one-stop shopping"
for our information requirements. If I was to query the database (s) for the
word "Totem Pole" it would be desirable to receive information back as to our
holdings related to the query in the collections of : material culture holdings
(the objects themselves); still and moving pictures; books; periodicals;
manuscripts and monographs; oral history recordings;

Bibliographic information and advice as to the wisdom or otherwise of this
pursuit will be greatly received.

Roger Baird
Canadian Museum of Civilization
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