My organization maintains a database of 'significant corporate events' 
that is used by our employees and administrators when they need quick 
answers to corporate history questions.  Typical inquiries the database is 
intended to answer might be, When was a particular program implemented? 
Or, in what year was a product discontinued?  Or, when was John Doe 
appointed as deputy commissioner?

The database currently contains about 1000 text-only records.  Nothing 
fancy.  It's our 'first look here' source, and is not intended to give 
in-depth or polished essays needed to respond to inquiries received from 
the general public or by Treasury Department executives.  The database is 
maintained internally on our computer network, and presently is available 
only to employees.  Eventually, though, we would like to make a sub-set of 
the database available to the general public via our corporate website.

But the database as it currently is has problems.  And some are really big 
problems.

The software that 'runs' the database has limited search capability, does 
not allow name or subject authorities, has no citations for the source of 
the information, and it has impractical field length restrictions.  And 
now that the time is at hand for me to expand the database, I also want to 
upgrade the software.  I particularly want to remove myself as the 
'gatekeeper' so that any employee can enter and modify data, within 
guidelines established and maintained by the Archives.

My question to the listserv is, can anyone suggest a particular 
off-the-shelf or public domain software that I should investigate?

I am especially curious about using a Wiki collaborative approach to 
building and maintaining a database of significant historical events.  Has 
anyone within the archival/library/museum community already done this?  If 
so, which WikiMatrix would you recommend?  Are there concerns about using 
Wiki that I should be aware of?  Particularly if the database is 
eventually made available to the general public via our corporate website? 
 The latter is a concern that is particularly bothersome to some of our 
administrators, all of whom are essentially my bosses.  So I want to 'do 
this right."

I'm a nerd--but not necessarily a computer nerd--so if I've not fully 
explained this, please feel free to contact me privately off-list. 
Otherwise, post your comments to the list for others to read and share. 
And BTW, yes, this has been cross-posted to the Archives listserv.

Thanks for your help and advice.

Harry


Harry G. Heiss, Archivist
Bureau of the Public Debt
Department of the Treasury
149 19th Street, Room W-103
Parkersburg, WV 26101

[log in to unmask]
304.480.5335  [voice]
304.480.5334  [fax]

"Be nice to the archivist, or he'll erase you from history."
     --Anonymous



______________________________________________

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any 
position of the Government or my agency.
Use of this equipment is permitted by the agency?s policy governing 
limited personal use.


.

=========================================================
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).