STORE is a very simple piece of software allowing you to record a summary of the contents and/or condition of your storage locations. It works particularly well for large blocks of homogeneous storage, such as mobile racking, cabinet/drawer stacks, sequences of boxes etc.

Even very large collections can quickly be assessed and recorded using STORE. Although it isn't  a substitute for proper cataloguing or object/group-based recording, it can be a very useful initial step in improving the usability of your collections.
 

• Will run on any Windows computer (even old 3.1 machines) A Mac version could be made available if enough demand is forthcoming.
• Automatic entry for runs of storage locations. For example, if you have forty cabinets, each with 10 drawers, which you've numbered CAB:1.1 to CAB:40.10, STORE can automatically populate records with these storage locations, to save you typing in 400 locations. STORE can do this automatically for a very wide range of formats of storage location.
• flag conservation problems, and their seriousness
• Very easy to use full text indexing of field contents, allowing almost instantaneous retrieval of any word(s) from even giant datasets. Use AND, OR etc for extra power.
• Multi-user: simultaneous access by multiple users if kept on a shared network drive.
• Full power of SQL "select" statements for more complex searches, data manipulation, or export.
• SQL statements can be saved for future use/editing.
• Listings of drawer contents can be saved as text files (eg for import by other apps) and/or printed.
• Uses Foxpro 2.6 .dbf file format: universally readable by other database/spreadsheet applications.
• Freely available!

• Storeloc: (15 characters maximum) You can enter anything you like in her by hand (e.g. "E end of hall"), or use the "auto-populate" option on the File menu to automatically fill in records. Normally I'd suggest storage locations of the format <prefix>:<cabinet/bay>.<drawer/shelf> (eg "RACK:25.3"), but this is up to you.
• Empty: (1 character). Y or N to indicate whether the location is currently empty.
• Ucm: (1 character). Y or N to indicate that the drawer inlcudes uncatalogued or undocumented material.
• Condcode:(2 characters). Optional letter or digit code to indicate severity of any conservation problems (eg 1 (minor) to 3 (severe)).
• Problems:(5 characters). Optional codes for type of conservation problem (eg F (fungus), M (mouse damage), PM (pyrite rot and mouse damage) etc..)
• Contents (255 characters maximum) A brief description of what's here. This can usefully include any numbers applying to the material, and/or a text description of what's there. E.g.

 

 
 
 

crystal models ex Geology Dept. (GEO425)
Glasgow College of Nursing collection (syringes and scalpels)
Mont Saint Hilaire syenites D.J. Bloggs. R21436-R21475
Dun Mor Vaul, Tiree. E.W. Mackie. Uncatalogued spare material including bones.
 

• Condition:(255 characters maximum) Optional more detailed description of any conservation problems.
• Notes:(unlimited length) Anything else you want to record. You could use this, for example, to fully list accession numbers of specimens in the drawer.

Email me for download details.

Remember to back up any museum computer records

For further details contact J.W. Faithfull@museum.gla.ac.uk