Robbin:

   On the curatorial level, as opposed to the artists' level, there is
   actually some serious creative work going on between museums and
   programmers.  Not so much hissing and rolling of eyes, though maybe
   some gnashing of teeth.  The Garden has been working with programmers
   of various sorts for half a dozen years now on three projects:

   1) A living collections database, an expansion/revision/implementation
   of an existing vertical market Revelation database called BG-Base. For
   that, we have had a programmer/systems person on staff.  She's been
   incredibly thorough and productive working with the horticulture
   staff, and we are now putting in data and tying it to a mapping
   program based upon Auto-Cad (I think I have those details correct.)

   2) The implementation of a on line computer catalog for our 1.2
   million item library (which is accessible on telnet now, its at
   librisc.nybg.org). That required heavy involvement of Library staff
   and the almost full-time participation of an information services
   specialist/librarian named Bernadette Callery, who is now back
   in school at Carnegie Mellon in library information technology. The
   most important part of this process was a 30 year program of
   systematizing the Garden's manual catalog. Thirty years!

   3) The design and two-stage implementation of a database for our
   herbarium, or collection of dried plants-- Almost 6 million items.  We
   have extensively modified a PC-based database with the original
   programmer (Revelation again!), and are spec-ing out a
   4gl/unix-ish/client-server database which should take 2 years to
   implement.  This will incorporate images, and be designed to be
   authoritative (incorporating lots of authority files), accessible over
   the Internet, and we hope it will be useful for other
   botanical and natural science collections as a model (though there
   are, of course, several other major projects with similar goals going
   on throughout the country and world).  There are two computer
   services staff people spending most of their time on this, and a
   committee of scientists who are intensively involved. We will be
   hiring, the last I heard, a programmer next year.

   So, there are *many* contexts where the computer/museum interface
   works well.  It takes a serious organizational commitment to the
   process, of course, alot of fundraising.  Though contract programmers
   and developers would probably say that we are not typical corporate
   clients, we have more in common with corporate users than with artists
   who are trying to find satisfying and compelling ways to use
   computers.

   Hope all goes well with you as the Chinook descends on the City.

   PS-- I gave your name to Charlayne Haynes from the New Museum on
   B'way, they are looking to start up with Internet in and out.

   Eric Siegel
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