Once upon a time, this would have been a sales pitch. I used to run AltaMira PRess and they used to distribute PastPerfect Museum Software. But I don't work for AltaMira anymore and they don't distribute PastPerfect anymore. PastPerfect was designed to avoid just the kind of discussions you are having on the list. It's supposed to be cheap enough and simple enough for small museums to not have to worry about reinventing the wheel. In addition, it was designed in consultation with lots of input from many museums, so most of its fields represent "best practices" in registration. Furthermore, by establishing a common set of fields, registrars can move from one institution to another, training can take place between institutions, and the databases can be compared between museums. Last I knew, about 3500 museums were using PP. As they've moved to later versions of PP, the cost has gone up and the complexity has gone up as well(the program does more). But I'm still convinced, as I was in 1998 when we first distributed it, that it's a very good idea for smaller institutions, for the reasons listed above. I would check it out rather than, as someone else said, reinvent a fairly complicated wheel. mitch allen Mitch Allen Publisher Left Coast Press, Inc. 1630 N. Main Street, #400 Walnut Creek, California 94596 925 935-3380 phone and fax [log in to unmask] www.LCoastPress.com ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).