Once upon a time, this would have been a sales pitch. I used to run
AltaMira PRess and they used to distribute PastPerfect Museum Software.
But I don't work for AltaMira anymore and they don't distribute
PastPerfect anymore. 

PastPerfect was designed to avoid just the kind of discussions you  are
having on the list. It's supposed to be cheap enough and simple enough
for small museums to not have to worry about reinventing the wheel. In
addition, it was designed in consultation with lots of input from many
museums, so most of its fields represent "best practices" in
registration. Furthermore, by   establishing a common set of fields,
registrars can move from one institution to another, training can take
place between institutions, and the databases can be compared between
museums. Last I knew, about 3500 museums were using PP. 

As they've moved to later versions of PP, the cost has gone up and the
complexity has gone up as well(the program does more). But I'm still
convinced, as I was in 1998 when we first distributed it, that it's a
very good idea for smaller institutions, for the reasons listed above.
I would check it out rather than, as someone else said, reinvent a
fairly complicated wheel. 

mitch allen



Mitch Allen
Publisher
Left Coast Press, Inc.
1630 N. Main Street, #400
Walnut Creek, California 94596
925 935-3380 phone and fax
[log in to unmask]
www.LCoastPress.com

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