>4. What is the importance of client-server, distributed and relations >database technologies to collection management databases? Actually, I would like a crack at all the questions that Kathy has posted, but thought that I would exercise some self constraint and only answer the one that I thought most interesting. If Kathy or anyone else wants to publish this or anything else, that fine. This is intellectual freeware. Just as long as credit is given where due. As for the question. I find the phrasing to be interesting. I would argue that the only important thing that a database must be nowadays is relational. A database need not having any client/server or distributed functionalities because these functionalities are being dealt with at a different level than the database itself. Let me explain. Lots of people are working on Internet retrieval tools and the such that incorporate databases. So, for example, the World Wide Web now has an interface that allows anyone with the proper client to conduct searches on an SQL compliant database. That is, SQL databases have been subsumed by the Web. Same thing goes with the distributed database functionality. Databases will be linked with each other through tools outside the database itself. Already, the search mechanisms in gopher and WWW allow multiple indexing. Choosing a database on either a client/server or "distributed" basis is not a good idea. These technologies are not database specific. However, it is still importanto have a database that is easy to manipulate and that has a good framework. Even if the manner of "presentation" of the database does not matter, the database information content is extremeley important. A relational database is a way to maximize information content and felxibility while minimizing the amount of space used. Basically, instead of storing all your information in one big flat file, you store chunks of related information in separate databases that can be linked together. This "relational" model makes a lot of sense. You dont throw all your papers in one big folder. You organize them into small folders with cross referencing to other folders. Relational databasing is not only organizationally wise, but also allows for faster searching of information. The last point, one that I kind of almost make, but never explicitly say is: Structuring and organizing information in a database is fundamentally different from how the information in the database is used. That is, the way that information is extracted from the database can be numerous, and can far removed from the database itself. The strcuture of the database is integral and the most important thing. Cheers, Robert Guralnick | Museum of Paleontology | University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 | [log in to unmask] | (510) 642-9696