Hi!  I'm the collection manager at the Kona Historical Society on the Big
Island of Hawaii.  And yes, I love working in paradise, but where do I go
on vacation?  I just wanted to mention to you folks who are struggling with
software questions, especially you guys who are tempted to do-it-yourself
because collection management software is so insanely expensive.  Please
check out PASTIME2000.  It is collection management software made
especially for small museums and historical societies.  It is very
affordable, starting at $495. PASTIME is written in Microsoft Visual Foxpro
which can handle large collections and it does instant keyword searching
using Rushmore Technology.  It has some great features for historical
societies, like searching photographs by name of subject and a biography
screen for people who appear in the images. It can be equipped with a very
easy-to-use digital imaging module so you can get going on web projects.

We've been using it for about 8 months and couldn't be happier, even
volunteers with little computer experience take to it.  The KHS has 28,000
photo records, 5000 objects, and 1400 library items. The tech support guys
at PASTIME converted all of our records from the various and sundry
databases that we were using so we were up and running very quickly.  We
are currently digitizing our photograph collection with a flatbed scanner.
This is cutting down on wear and tear on the fragile photographs and
cutting some of our photo reproduction costs.  We've also started providing
images in digital format to researchers.

In my organization, I'm the registrar, cataloger, conservator, preparator,
and housekeeper.  I'm way to busy to learn how to be a computer programmer.
 Check out the PASTIME website or call me at the Kona Historical Society.
PASTIME is very affordable.  They are trying to keep marketing costs down
so they can pass on the savings to us in small museum organizations.  Don't
expect a lot of glossy brochures and other marketing hype.  You'll just get
great, easy-to-use software and friendly tech support.

Mary L. Parr
Collection Manager
Kona Historical Society
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