COLLECTION MANAGEMENT IN THE NEW MILLENIUM: A DATABASE MODEL FOR CATALOGUING COLLECTIONS AND ACCESSING THEM ON THE INTERNET

While information technology has advanced exponentially in the past two decades, many institutional earth science collections remain cataloged using obsolete methods. With budgets decreasing and some administrators questioning the need to maintain geological specimens, museums and universities should seek ways to make their collections more accessible and more widely used. The current generation of databases and Internet applications provide an opportunity to display specimen photographs, scans of related documents, analytical data, and all the catalog information the institution chooses to share. Such a system would support robust searches for researchers and visitors across the globe, bringing more recognition to the organization and allowing idle research specimens to serve more purpose. However, many collections are still cataloged on paper, or else in custom written databases that are not exportable and cannot be shared using Internet applications. The key to a successful 21st century electronic catalog starts with good database design. With a solid design built upon a standard database product, it is much easier for applications to access the database and perform useful and detailed searches. This presentation offers a model for a collection database that was developed for the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, and includes discrete fields that can describe every aspect of a specimen from initial collection and acquisition to deaccession. This design is the product of years of experience in both information technology and geology, coupled with a wide survey of museum and academic curators. The presentation concludes with a bold proposal to form a cooperative, so that resources can be pooled to implement and improve this common database design, upon which each institution's custom Internet applications may be developed and implemented.