Hi Sonya!
I thought I would give you my two cents on our system.  Our collections are
managed by Minaret (Cactus Software) and it works very well for us.  My
predecessor as Collections Manager, Sara P. Kelley, spearheaded an in-depth
study of our collections and an assessment of our needs in 1992.  We have
approximately 30,000 3-D objects and 100,000 archival ones.  We operate nine
historic sites, four off-site storage areas and a library.  In choosing a
system, Sara and our librarian wanted one that could be networked and also
used the MARC format for cataloguing archival materials.  They, along with a
museum consultant, chose Minaret.  Sara then customized the system to fit
our needs (she did this with very little difficulty as I understand it by
simply following the Minaret Users Guide).  We have had volunteers enter all
of the cataloguing information in two passes (the first pass was just
registration information; the second pass they are entering everything
else).  The system does searches very easily and we also keep track of items
used in temporary exhibitions.  If you have any questions, please feel free
to call me at 610-435-4664 or my email is [log in to unmask]  Good
luck!
Colleen E. Curry
Collections Manager
Lehigh County Historical Society
Old Courthouse, P.O. Box 1548
Allentown, PA  18105-1548
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Lehigh County Historical Society
Allentown, PA
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