Thanks David, That's almost verbatim what Dimitry just recommended to me too! I haven't looked at their table structure, but suspect that they have not used the same ObjID numbers that are used in TMS, but it's definitely a glimmer of hope. I also asked them if I could share any of their db with people. I'll be sure to let you know what they say. The only conservation departments that I have heard that really use the TMS conservation module are MFABoston and the Tate, but I haven't visited either place to see them in action. Thanks for your input, though. I'll let you know how it progresses.. David David Aylsworth Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Registrar for Collections telephone: 713-639-7824 fax: 713-639-7780 -----Original Message----- From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Parsell Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 10:32 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Making another database partially accessible in TMS David, The answer to your question is a qualified yes without knowing what database and platform is being used. I have linked access databases and SQL tables outside of TMS to TMS tables by using the ID field (IE: objectID, conID), found in each TMS table. Using Crystal Reports I write reports that join the TMS and non-TMS tables or just the non-TMS tables. The reports are selected from the TMS reports menus and work well. I'm very curious about your conservation db. Our conservators also find the TMS conservation assistant less than thrilling. Can you share any of the design with us? David Parsell Yale University Art Gallery and The Yale Center for British Art At 11:03 AM 1/22/2007, you wrote: >Good morning, > >Because I wasn't fast enough with exploring the possibility of adapting >the conservation modules of TMS in a manner that was acceptable for our >conservation department, they went ahead and created their own database >that they use for their own purposes. It's a beautiful database, and is >very useful for them. They also had very strong feelings of mistrust of >the security abilities of TMS and did not want access to many of their >reports to general users. > >Now, though, they are starting to realize some of the benefits of having >at least some of their data accessible through TMS. They don't want to >talk about mapping a conversion to dump their data into TMS yet, but >they think that they want the ability within TMS to capture a report of >specific fields from their database. They suggested doing this through >some sort of hyperlink. > >I haven't talked with Gallery Systems about this yet, but I will. I >have a feeling that this is not an unique problem for me, though, so was >curious about if anyone was dealing with multiple databases and trying >to merge them in a way that would enable both to operate dynamically or >independently? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. > >Thanks, >David > >David Aylsworth >Museum of Fine Arts, Houston >Registrar for Collections >telephone: 713-639-7824 >fax: 713-639-7780