Museum Archive software project

The reviews are in:

On Amazon (US): I volunteer for a small non-profit museum, serving as the techie for our computer system and electronic communications. We were faced with a large stack (over 10 years worth) of old paper acquisition and inventory forms, and it was nearly impossible to find anything quickly. We started looking around for software to automate the process. We downloaded a trial version of a name-brand inventory software, and it was great, but at a price tag of over $800, it was way out of our budget range. I went looking online and found Jim Halpin's freeware Museum Archive software and installed it to compare to the trial version of the expensive program. For the functions that we need in our small-town museum, the Museum Archive program worked just as well and gave us the same basic functionality as the expensive one. I bought the book in order to upgrade to the premium version to be able to get all the available capacity and functions of the program, and to have the book on hand as a reference if needed in the future. The program is great and runs very well on our antiquated computer system with no hitches or glitches. Once you order the book and upgrade to the premium version, you get to keep up with tweaks and mods as soon as they are released, and feedback from the author, when I've needed to make contact, has been very quick and helpful. It's a great program and I'm so glad we found it.

On Amazon (US): As a member of a team looking at archiving photos for our churches I looked at several Museum Software packages, even purchased one of the more expensive ones, then I found Musarch. The small price paid to purchase the book to get the premium addition is trivial, and the book will come in handy if I need to convert the database. We needed several features that were not in the release we started with and Jim quickly added them. We are delighted with the product and the support we have received.

On Amazon (US): I am the secretary for the Auckland Fire Brigade Historical Society in New Zealand. We were looking for some software to record all of our acquisitions and tried several before finding Museum Archive software. We trialed it and found it could do everything we wanted and more so we got it without hesitation. It has been in use for about 5 months now and each time we add items to the collection we are impressed with what this little gem can do. Recommended to historical societies and small Museums as it is an excellent piece of software and Jim, the author, is very helpful with questions.

On Amazon (UK): First of all this book is for programmers not archaeologists or museum custodians. You purchase the book to gain access to what I can only describe as some of the best free software available to a small museum or archaeological dig site, where designing and constructing a database for your small finds or museum holdings is beyond either your ability or price tag.

Via email: We absolutely love it and since we officially started our hard core cataloging and archiving process today it's been just great to use. Please feel free to use us, Animation Hall Of Fame, Inc., in regard to any promotion you do on the software as we are extremely grateful customers.

Via email: Thanks for your help! I just love this software and I'm going to be getting another copy for a local historical society soon. They've just been blessed with a permanent location and I will be installing a computer system there in the next few months.

Via email: I represent the Watermen's Foundation of Virginia's Eastern Shore and we love the program.

Via email: I am still entering artifacts and have not loaded any photos. Our website needs some work before I can play with web pages. I LOVE the software!

Via email: Several months back I got a copy of your book and then you sent me the passwords for the premium edition of Musarch (we love it by the way).

Via email: I just want to let you know that I am well into archiving our items with your software and we love it! It works very well.

Via email: Hi, Jim. I love MusArch!

Via email: Hello, I love this program. I tried several times to set up Access Databases and they stump me every time. I am using it to archive the books and objects at my local Masonic Lodge and hope to visit the others in the area to get them done as well.

Via email: And I love the addition of being able to save photos directly into the database, it is great!! Also the print layout is amazing, looks clean and easy to find information.

Via email: Our little museum runs on a very thin shoestring, and finding your software was like a miracle. The previous person who tried to do this only found a demo version of some package (the name of which escapes me at the moment) that was over $800. Absolutely no way we could afford it. So when I found your program and compared it to the expensive one, I was thrilled! It does everything that we need.

Via email: I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to see this alternative to [some other] software. We have limited funds and with scarcity of grant money the society would not be able to get up and running with the organization of collections.

Check out the online version of the Help

The online version of the software's help file is available here. Have a look at the screenshots and the explanations of the program's capabilities. The help file will open in a new browser window.