In article <33D72398.546D at picr.cr.man.ac.uk>, bmcsar at picr.cr.man.ac.uk wrote:
>We have a number of freezers from several suppliers storing cell lines
>and tissue/blood samples . Currently we use either paper records or a
>rather inadequate home-brew database to store details of what is in
>there. As the Vax which hosts the database is going in a few months we
>need a replacement system. We are reluctant to spend time porting the
>existing application!
>>Can anyone point us towards any alternative ready-made packages - we
>will even consider things we have to pay for. What do other labs use
>these days? (When we asked this question a few years ago the answer we
>failed to find anything suitable). Our requirements are fairly simple -
>freezers are either rod/cane or box based, we need to be able to log
>samples in and out, move samples around and find samples by whatever the
>user decided to call them!
>>Any suggestions or pointers gratefully received. Our news feed is a
>little dodgy at the moment so Email would be appreciated.
>>Steve.
>bmcsar at picr.cr.man.ac.uk
Steve, give FileMaker Pro 3.0 a look. Very powerful relational database. I
use it to keep a log of my freezer storage, immunostained slides and
unstained slides. I had been trying to force Excel to do it but it is a
*spreadsheet* not a *database* and didn't work very well. An advantage of
FM Pro is that it reads many formats so if, for example, you had the info
in an Excel file, you just open it with FM Pro and away you go.
--
Jackie E. Kylander <jek at med.unc.edu>
A/OSB
