I find that no matter what I am looking for the best, and often only, way to find all of it in Past Perfect is to do keyword searches. Our data was entered from card records, and although all of our data is in there somewhere, it is still inconsistent. With a keyword search, you are guaranteed to find the name you are looking for whether it's in the People, Description, Notes, Collector, Artist or Donor fields or somewhere else entirely. You can search just your library catalog if you are only looking for books, or if you have books scattered between library and object catalogs (as we do) you can search both or all catalogs at once. You can also customize your keyword searches to exclude commonly used words (and, the, of etc.) or only search certain fields. Keyword searches do take a little bit longer, and you do get a few extraneous returns. But with a little common sense and a little practice even your elderly volunteers should be able to find things with relative ease. Until you have your data completely under control, I believe it to be the most effective way to find things. Good luck! Callie Raspuzzi __________________ Callie Raspuzzi Collections Manager Bennington Museum 75 Main Street Bennington Vermont tel (802) 447-1571 fax (802) 442-8305 www.benningtonmuseum.org >>> [log in to unmask] 01/30/06 12:00PM >>> For those of you who are using PastPerfect out there, which of the research methods do you/your volunteers use the most? My dilemma, we converted from FileMakerPro to PastPerfect going on two = years ago and the program is pretty much unusable do to the fact much of = the information did not end up in the correct field, somewhat scattered. = My plans were to have information entered into the people field and searc= h terms field, by volunteers, and have our reference room volunteers, most = are of retirement age, use the people field and search terms field for = performing research request for our patrons in our research library. I = thought this would be the easiest method for our volunteers to access the= information. I have been hesitant to teach our reference room volunteers the program = for fear of them getting frustrated at not being able to find the information they are looking for. I have thought of training them to do= dataentry, but they are usually to busy to perform dataentry while workin= g in the reference room. My other dilemma/difficulty has been finding volunteers who are willing t= o do dataentry. I would appreciate any guidance, suggestions anyone can give on training = the "older generation" volunteer a new computer program, how to recruit = volunteers to do dataentry, and as stated before what research method(s) = most commonly used in PastPerfect. I have also cross-posted this message= at Pastime Software. --Shannon ========================================================= 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). ========================================================= 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).