Jim’s Development Blog

I want this museum software to be usable by organizations of all sizes. The software will maintain a database with a complete record of every item in the archive: what it is, where it came from, its location, what it looks like… with a tracking history of movement - when it was displayed, when someone checked it out for study, when it was loaned out to another organization. I’ll incorporate links to image files, to text files, and to other documents. One of the goals is to have a distributable “read-only” version of the software. Another goal is to automatically generate static web pages from the software.

The phase one package will run on the Windows platform (XP or Vista).

I’m going to handle both the archive (collection) information as well as information about the membership with this software. It seems logical to do both, because there will be some interaction:

• Members will be interested in hearing about significant additions to the collection;
• Members will sometimes be a source of additions to the collection; and
• Members will be a primary source of funding to support the collection.

The member information should include the following items:

• Name (First, Last, Initials, Suffix, Title)
• Home address (Street, Apt or Floor, City, State, Zip)
• Work Address (see home address)
• Phone numbers (Home, Work, Cell, Fax)
• Email address
• Second home address with likely periods of occupancy
• Business information (Company name, industry, position, web address)

Additional tables should capture information about family members, pledges, donations, volunteer service, and so on. For more sophisticated organizations, a section on planned giving would come in handy.

The software should coordinate and keep a log of all communications with the member: visits, mailings, phone calls, and so on. I’ll design the member section of the database and post the design here before I tackle the collection section.