One other thing to note.  When you ask a vendor questions, try not to ask
the question "Does the software ________ ?" Where the blank could be any
particular function you may want to ask about.  Sales people know to answer
yes to the question because there is probably some work around to accomplish
the function you want.  The question to ask is "How does it _______" where
the blank again is the function you want to evaluate.

I believe I learned this from Julie Goebel at the MER conference in 2000
when the company I worked was looking at new software.

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Jackie Cohan
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 11:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Seeking ideas for software replacement

Hi,

I work for the City of Alexandria, Virginia's Archives & Records Center.
We oversee a records management program for all City agencies (about 2,500
employees in all) and also have a small, archival research collection that
is available for public research.

Since the spring of 1996, we have used GAIN for Windows.  We have
approximately 17,000 cubic-foot boxes as well as some other materials in a
variety of physical formats.  We track the non-permanent records by box.
It works just fine.

For the archival materials, I enter the box, and then under "extended
description," I add each file folder title.  That allows for keyword
searching.  Since we only have 3-4 patrons search our archival collection
per month, that is working quite well and I don't really see the need for
anything more complicated.

We're looking for a system that tracks boxes, manages destruction,
circulation, requests, etc.  There are 4 users here, and we do not want to
allow City employees access beyond searches, if that.  We have received
$50,000 for the purchase of a new software program.  Can anyone suggest
some programs we can start looking into?  We're in the Washington, DC area,
so we'd  like to be able to visit users of other systems to see how their's
work.

Thanks!

Jackie Cohan, CA
Records Administrator & Archivist
Archives & Records Center
City of Alexandria, Virginia

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Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance