Dear Ken, sorry I am not able to locate your museum. What kind of museum is it? In Germany, we have both, acquisition books and computer/card files on the objects. Of course, you can manage the acquisition entries with an electronic documentation system; good new systems transfer the used data quickly into the inventory. But the acquisition book has another funtion as the inventory: The acquisition book is a document, which fixes the circumstances and data, how a certain (shortly described) object made his way into a museum collection (and sometimes off, called deacquisition). Acqusition books contain the date and signature of the donor for example, and the person (curator/director), who accepted it. The acquisition book is a legal document which documents changes of possession. The data in the inventory are regarding all other information on the object, like detailed descriptions, interpretations, and classification. The data can be changed by qualified personel, but not the data in the acquisition book! For these reasons, the museum documentation program IMDAS from Joanneum Research, Austria, only allows two hardcopies of the acquisition book, one for the museum and the other for the former owner, while you can prints as many hardcopies as you like from the inventory... The museum copy of the acquisition sheet can be stored in normal document files in a secure place. As, for example, the acquisition book contains critical data like prices, addresses of donors, or notes on the particular agreement (conditions etc.), the acquisition file is not open to "anybody". As many different people work on inventories (even students and secretaries), it is better to separate also the computer data of the acquisition book from the inventory and to operate with sepate user rights for both acquisition book and inventory. Best regards CMS Verlag Dr. C. Müller-Straten, Kunzweg 23, D-81243 München, Tel/Fax: 089-839 690 43, http://WebMuseen.de/VERLAGCMS MAGAZINES AND BOOKS IN MUSEOLOGY (GERMAN/ENGLISH)+ GERMAN THESAURI