[Web4lib] Electronic Library

[Suelzer, Elizabeth]

Hi all-

 

My library would like to create a full-text online database for our
senior design papers and master's theses. We currently have about 200
senior design projects and 300 masters theses.  We don't have a lot
(any) money to spend on this, so I was looking at either creating one
from scratch or using an open source option such as Greenstone.
Greenstone seems the most feasible for me since it works pretty much
out-of-the-box. 

 

Theoretically, it seems like building our own database shouldn't be too
difficult, but since I have virtually no programming skills, I don't
know what programming languages I will need to know to write it. I'm
very comfortable using MS Access- can I use this as the backend of the
database, or would SQL be the better option?  

 

I am looking for advice about whether to a)build my own database or use
open source and b)if I build my own, what programming languages I should
use. I realize that these are vague questions, but I'm not sure how to
start this project.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Liz

 

Elizabeth Suelzer

Interlibrary Loan and Generalist Librarian

(414)277-7182