The Database Survey WG is surveying the kind of systems in use by museums and collections and their purpose. The aim is to make it easier for museums to locate people to discuss mutual problems in automation. A major problem with a database of museum databases is that it soon becomes obsolete.
Museums change their systems more frequently as prices of new hardware and software decrease.
If the Database Survey is to be able to serve as a point of reference and provide museum curators with relevant information, it will have to be updated on a regular basis. Another problem is that few museum curators have actually used the Database Survey. Very few requests for information have been sent to the chair or to CHIN in Ottawa. Efforts made to publicize the main results bogged down due to the enormous amount of writing and editing. The amount of work involved to maintain this information is, therefore, difficult to justify, even if it were obviously useful.