Hi David We've used a range of dbs - Access, MySQL, Oracle and Paradox but I'm not sure you're asking the right question. No generic database has ready-made tools which make it ideal for collections management but, then, it's just a database - it's the query tools which matter. We built our own tool MusDev http://www.dmcsoft.com/dmc/musdev.php3 which sits on top of any ODBC compliant database (though for our own purposes we generally use Access). Furthermore, we use that same collections management database to drive the publicly accessible website giving a completely different view on the data.
I'm not trying to sell you that as a product, just the idea behind it which is forget where the data resides and develop tools yourself for what you want to do with that data. Thes could be anything from some editable SQL queries to a full product like MusDev or an intermediate option such as a little VB app. I don't buy the indexed field stuff as a problem either. I can't see what benefit there is in db design terms of having an indexed field longer than 255 characters. Either you should look at splitting the data with an indexable part (for fast searching) pointing to the heavy text data or forget about indexing. Just because a field is not indexed does not mean it can't be searched. I agree that a free text field search in Access for 100,000 records plus is woefully slow but it's not rocket science to write a routine to do this quickly in C++ or even VB. Best Wishes Douglas TAMH: Tayside - A Maritime History http://www.tamh.org At 03:12 PM 11/13/00 -0500, you wrote: <SNIP> > and I would like to know what the >options with generic database software are other than MS Access. The >principal problem with Access in our case is that one of the collections >(Archives) is described using fields in which a great deal of text can be >entered. Staff would need to search in this field but Access has a limit to >the size of indexed fields. > >Are there other heritage institutions using a collections database using >generic software which either does not have this problem or has a greater >limit to indexed fields? I have built or re-designed museum collection >databases using Access and I appreciate the flexibility this do-it-yourself >option affords. <SNIP> >Thanks, > >David Farrell, Collections Assistant
