[web4lib] webscript and other middleware recommendations

[Mike Poulin]

Hi Janet,

We use Filemaker 4, Tango for Mac (from Everyware), and Webstar on a Power
Macintosh to do projects similar to what you describe.  Among those are,
Instructor, course, author title indexes to our Reserve Readings,  a list of our

full-text holdings (for staff use only), a reference questions database of
common questions (about to be made public, the staff version has been in use for

some time), etc.

It works well, project development time to put up a new database is very good,
and the cost of the software was reasonable. The MAC 8100/100 assigned to
support the project gets over 6000 hits a month (not particularly high) but
handles all of the reserve searches for a campus of about 5200 undergraduates.
Highly recommended.

We have discussed doing a database of databases but have not yet made a decision

about whether to do it that way.  You might look at how the Scout Report is
organized as a model.

Mike Poulin


****************************************
Michael Poulin
Systems Librarian
Ithaca College Library
1201 Gannett Center
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607)-274-1892    fax 607-274-1539
mpoulin at ithaca.edu
****************************************



Janet McLaughlin wrote:

> I would appreciate any comments anyone might like to share about WebScript
> or any other middleware product.
>
> I am investigating using an RDMS and middleware to implement subject
> access to our collection of electronic databases and e-journals. Briefly,
> we plan to create a "database of databases" and hope to use a middleware
> product like WebScript or Cold Fusion to provide access from our web
> interface.
>
> Much has been written about Cold Fusion but little about WebScript.  We
> are looking into using Oracle or MySql as the RDBMS, but have not
> committed to either at this point.
>
> Any insight about these products or about your own experiences with such
> products would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Janet McLaughlin
> Graduate Student
> Library Systems
> UNC-Chapel Hill

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