Steven, I developed a collections management application in Access 2.0 for the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, TX (the JFK assassination museum) last year. I have just finished making some additional modifications for them. When I worked at the Dallas Museum of Art, I used both Access 1.0 (painful) and 2.0 for Rights and Reproductions administration, as well as an adjunct to the Visual Resources collection database (ARGUS). Currently, my work at Microsoft (which makes me partial to the product) entails managing several media libraries - we use Access 95 for a number of databases, as well as a front end to our SQL Server database, which houses the library collections catalog. Even if I didn't work for MS, I would say that without reservation Access is the best entry level database tool on the market. It is highly flexible - complex databases can be implemented with or without programming and the integration of Access 95 with other Microsoft office tools is amazing. Microsoft has also just released a set of upsizing tools for Access, which allows you to easily migrate an access application to SQL Server, Microsoft's enterprise-level database. Another development add-in available for free right now include an HTML generator, which can display an access table as a web page, both tools can be downloaded for free off of the Microsoft website (www.microsoft.com). Access' primary limitation is that its engine (called Jet) is sluggish if more than 3-4 users are using it simultaneously over a network. It is definitely a tool designed for small office use. Access is also lame in its default handling of digital images and other multimedia objects, which are stored as OLE BLOBs (binary large objects). Unfortunately, so are all the other out-of-the-box databases I can think of. However, as I said, it can be easily integrated with SQL Server, which is the fastest database of its kind on the market. Kevin Comerford ACG Media Library Manager Microsoft Corporation ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 13:14:31 -0400 From: "Steven R. Smith" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: MS-Access for Collection Management/Cataloging Dear list members: I would very much like to hear from anyone using MS-Access for collection management/cataloging of art, history, or visual collections. Thanks very much, Steven ****************************************************************************** * Steven R. Smith Tel: (617)495-3150 Art Collection FAX: (617)495-4449 Harvard Law School Email: [log in to unmask] Cambridge, MA 02138 ****************************************************************************** *