In article <[log in to unmask]>,
   [log in to unmask] wrote:
>Forgive me if someone has asked this before, but WHY doesn't some
>vendor build a collections management system using one of the major
>relational databases? That way, when the company dies because the
>museum market is too small to support more than one company, the
>database and support for it will still be there. We have built our
>own on Informix because we couldn't afford Willoughby (thank
>heavens!) and were already using Informix for our archaeological
>site file and archival databases--and while ours is not perfect and
>doesn't have wonderful graphical screens, it's still there and we
>can change it any time we like. But we'd gladly have bought a system
>built on Informix if one had been available at the time, because we
>had already justified the significant cost of the basic database
>system.
>
>Pat Galloway
>MS Dept. of Archives and History


To museum-lers participating in this discussion,

Willoughby was founded by one of the leaders in this industry (Lenore Sarasan)
who has conscientiously chosen to create systems based on commercial database
management systems for more than 15 years.  All three of our systems,
currently available to the museum community, are based on commercial database
management systems supported by the leading systems developers in the market.
SNAP! for Dos is based on Q&A by Symantec, SNAP! for Windows is based on
Access by Microsoft, and Multi MIMSY is based on Oracle by Oracle.

Of these three, only SNAP! for DOS has a flat file structure.  It also happens
to be the most widely used collections management system in the world.  It was
designed specifically to meet the needs of institutions that seek to maintain
professional standards but may be on a limited budget or have limited staff
resources to devote to automation projects.  I think that our SNAP! for DOS
users would object to some of the comments here about their system not being
adequate to meet their registrarial and curatorial needs.

We recognize that museums are not all the same and that different sizes and
types require different approaches to automation.  This is one of the
fundamental reasons why we offer more than one system to the museum community.

I encourage our users to share with this audience their experiences in
selecting a system for collections management.  They have put forth
exceptional effort in learning about the technololgy that is the backbone of
all successful museum automation projects.

Angela T. Spinazze
Director of Marketing Services
Willoughby Associates, Ltd.
708-866-0401


Angela T Spinazze
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.   USA
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