Leonard Will mentioned the door-stopper version of the ICOM-CIDOC model, but I was thinking of an overview version --simplified as an executive summary -- that several of us worked on prior to the 1993 CIDOC meeting. Since the final document was to my knowledge never approved by the committee, it has not been released. Perhaps something will move ahead in that regard at the upcoming joint meeting of MCN and ICOM-CIDOC. Richard Gerrard mentioned using MS-Access. I have used it for some applications, but have been more comfortable developing data structures and databases in FoxPro which provide you with a relatively standard database structure and then linking into Access through Access's ability to establish links out to existing databases. Access's proprietary data structure (and potentially huge files) is not easily accessible from without. For a discipline that has spent years recording bits of information on acid free 4x6 cards, putting all that information into a proprietary data format seems a surprising thing to do. It is true that there are conversion utilities so that data stored in proprietary formats such as Access, A-Rev, Paradox, and so on can be extracted, from my experience converting old data into new, things stored in xbase formats (dBase, Clipper, FoxPro, etc.) have a much longer life. I suspect this opinion is old fashioned, but I do recall how hard it was to get acid-free card stock from the local printer. I have never seen a catalog card self destruct, but I can think of several good ideas for electronic storage of data that have disappeared with only a few traces. Jim Blackaby | [log in to unmask]