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MUSTARD 
(Museum and University STorage And Retrieval of Data) 
MUSEUM DATA BANK STUDY GROUP 
Report of Meeting at 
Hershey, Pennsylvania 
March 27-28, 1972 
Submitted by 
Robert G. Chenhall 
catalog 
However, at 
GIS, GRIPHOS, 
record museum 
now converting 
The idea of using a computer in place of a museum 
card is scarcely more than five or six years old. 
least five major information systems (i.e., GIPSY 
SELGEM, and TAXIR) already have been developed to 
data, and perhaps twenty or more institutions are 
to computerized catalog systems. As a result of this proliferation 
of museum data banks, museum directors and curators contemplating 
the use of computers, either for collection management or for re¬ 
search purposes, are faced with a multiplicity of computer hardware 
and storage and retrieval systems which might fulfill their needs. 
In some cases there is an apparent competition between these systems, 
and there is a general lack of knowledge as to what each system 
will and will not do, the costs of operating under different 
systems, alternate methods of feeding data into the computers, 
and so on. There is at present no central office where a poten¬ 
tial user can obtain objective and reliable information or assis¬ 
tance in getting started with a computerized museum data bank. 
Likewise, individuals actively working with data banks have found 
themselves constantly confronted with requests for information, 
ranging from the most elementary instructions on what a data 
bank will do to requests for free consulting services, and they 
have felt an increasing need for some kind of a centralized organ¬ 
ization or office to coordinate their efforts and to prevent 
as much duplication of programing activities as possible. The 
Hershey Study Group meeting was organized in an effort to provide 
answers to these several needs. 
The meeting at the Hotel Hershey was funded by the Office 
of Museum Programs of the Smithsonian Institution (Frederick 
Schmid, Director), and organized jointly by Drs. James F. Mello 
and Robert G. Chenhall. Participants were selected: (1) to in¬ 
clude representation from each of the five major systems; (2) 
to include persons from as many different disciplines as possible; 
