Leonard Will mentioned the door-stopper version of the ICOM-CIDOC
model, but I was thinking of an overview version --simplified
as an executive summary -- that several of us worked on prior to
the 1993 CIDOC meeting.  Since the final document was to my
knowledge never approved by the committee, it has not been released.
Perhaps something will move ahead in that regard at the upcoming
joint meeting of MCN and ICOM-CIDOC.
 
Richard Gerrard mentioned using MS-Access.  I have used it for
some applications, but have been more comfortable developing
data structures and databases in FoxPro which provide you with
a relatively standard database structure and then linking into
Access through Access's ability to establish links out to
existing databases.  Access's proprietary data structure (and potentially
huge files) is not easily accessible from without.  For a
discipline that has spent years recording bits of information
on acid free 4x6 cards, putting all that information into
a proprietary data format seems a surprising thing to do.  It is
true that there are conversion utilities so that data stored in
proprietary formats such as Access, A-Rev, Paradox, and so on can
be extracted, from my experience converting old data into new,
things stored in xbase formats (dBase, Clipper, FoxPro, etc.)
have a much longer life.
 
I suspect this opinion is old fashioned, but I do recall how
hard it was to get acid-free card stock from the local printer.
I have never seen a catalog card self destruct, but I can
think of several good ideas for electronic storage of data that
have disappeared with only a few traces.
 
Jim Blackaby | [log in to unmask]