Hi all,

I've decided to try my hand at creating a database of my own. I've seen
what a few others have done, and they're great (Seabase, Conchli, Biota)
but not exactly what I want for my collection.
What I have started to do, is to create a visual basic interface connected
to an Access database.
Since I want to be able to query the database for reports on various levels
of taxa (eg: report of all Volutidae, report of just Cymbium, etc) and I
want to eliminate redundancy, I thought I might go the route Biota did and
create a table for each level of taxa, linking them together in a chain of
one-to-many relationships. Also a separate table for Country, Authors,
Dealers, Collectors. The main table for specimen entry would have Species,
Genus, Author, Country, Locality, Number of specimens, Habitat/Notes,
Grade, Size, and of course Catalog Number. Data-aware combo boxes would be
used on the forms: eg. to enter Genus on main form look in combo box list,
if not in list, double click the box and the Genus form opens for an entry
to be made there, and so on up the chain.

Am I making this too complicated? Should I be making this all in Access and
using VB and SQL to code the forms? I'm really pretty new at this, so any
suggestions from you experts would be greatly appreciated before I get too
far along in this!

Peter,
(finding my way out of the fog)
Vancouver, Canada

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Peter Egerton, Vancouver, Canada
Collector of worldwide Mollusca,
student of zoology and computers for life.
The beginnings of my website:
http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/seashell/index.html
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