Steven,

I developed a collections management application in Access 2.0 for the Sixth
Floor Museum in Dallas, TX (the JFK assassination museum) last year.  I have
just finished making some additional modifications for them.  When I worked at
the Dallas Museum of Art, I used both Access 1.0 (painful) and 2.0 for Rights
and Reproductions administration, as well as an adjunct to the Visual
Resources collection database (ARGUS).

Currently, my work at Microsoft (which makes me partial to the product)
entails managing several media libraries - we use Access 95 for a number of
databases, as well as a front end to our SQL Server database, which houses the
library collections catalog.

Even if I didn't work for MS, I would say that without reservation Access is
the best entry level database tool on the market.  It is highly flexible -
complex databases can be implemented with or without programming and the
integration of Access 95 with other Microsoft office tools is amazing.
Microsoft has also just released a set of upsizing tools for Access, which
allows you to easily migrate an access application to SQL Server, Microsoft's
enterprise-level database.  Another development add-in available for free
right now include an HTML generator, which can display an access table as a
web page, both tools can be downloaded for free off of the Microsoft website
(www.microsoft.com).

Access' primary limitation is that its engine (called Jet) is sluggish if more
than 3-4 users are using it simultaneously over a network.  It is definitely a
tool designed for small office use.  Access is also lame in its default
handling of digital images and other multimedia objects, which are stored as
OLE BLOBs (binary large objects).  Unfortunately, so are all the other
out-of-the-box databases I can think of.  However, as I said, it can be easily
integrated with SQL Server, which is the fastest database of its kind on the
market.

Kevin Comerford
ACG Media Library Manager
Microsoft Corporation




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Date:    Mon, 29 Apr 1996 13:14:31 -0400
From:    "Steven R. Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: MS-Access for Collection Management/Cataloging

Dear list members:

I would very much like to hear from anyone using MS-Access for collection
management/cataloging of art, history, or visual collections.

Thanks very much,

Steven

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Steven R. Smith                                              Tel:
(617)495-3150
Art Collection                                               FAX:
(617)495-4449
Harvard Law School                              Email:
[log in to unmask]
Cambridge, MA  02138
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