To whom ever might be willing to help me,

I am currently working on my MA thesis at GWU in American Studies/material
culture. My thesis is on a collection that I have  been cataloging at
the Historical Society of Washington, DC.  I was wondering if anyone knows
of any other museums that are taking the same approach with their museum
cataloging computer data bases as the Historical Society of Washington,
DC. Let me explain.

The Historical Society of Washington, DC is currently setting up a new
data base/catalog system which integrates both the library collections and
the museum collections.  This potentially could make object research
easier.  For example, if I wanted to research sewing items, I
could do a word search in the computer and it would give me both the
relevant library collections and museum collections.

Does anyone know of any other libraries or museums that have their library
collections and museum collections on the same data base?  I am under the
impression that this might be unique to the Historical Society of
Washington, DC.  If anyone knows of any institutions that has attempted
this please contact me at the following email address.  If yes, what
are the benefits and failures of this approach to cataloging.  I would
also appreciate any comments or opinions regarding this approach.

Thank you very much.

Elizabeth Hanson
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