Database on the Web

[Jaap.Verbaas at ubn.kun.nl]

Dear collegues,

I am ordered by my library director to put up a database for (a part of) Dutch 
history. 
There should be data in it like:
biographical data ('hard' data in searchable fields plus text like you find in 
a encyclopedia) 
data about organizations (idem)
calendarium / facts about things happended on certain dates
etc. etc.
There will have to be room for (links to)
* text documents as letters, treaties etc. 
* pictures 
(* statistical data) etc
It will be a project of years, it has to get 'standing', it should be reliable, 
future proof, it should be searchable on the web.
How big it will be? It is difficult to say now. But one should reckon it will 
be big. 

I read good stories about Ms Access 97 and Cold Fusion.
Will that do for big, reliable, future proof databases?
How big can a Ms Access 97 database (in combination with Cold Fusion) be to 
remain a good performance via the web? What is a just, reliable limit to the 
total of used records?
Is Ms Access 97 robust enough? 
Is Windows NT plus Ms Access 97 plus cold Fusion for a big database a viable 
way?
Or should other, more robust, databases come in?
Which ones? What are your experiences with it?
Do you know of ready-off-the-shelves packages that will deal for databases with 
this kind of information?

A lot of questions, but perhaps you can give me some hints?

Thanks in advance,

Greetings

Jaap Verbaas
University Library Nijmegen
Erasmuslaan 36
6525 GG  Nijmegen
The Netherlands