[WEB4LIB] Design for access to Electronic Databases

[Elizabeth Hamilton]

Dear Web4Lib,

We would like to use Access as a backend for displaying our databases
and wonder what kind of load it can handle. We would like to display our
list alphabetically and alphabetically with descriptions.

We are a large academic library system with 2 branch campuses, a medical
center library and around 8 main campus libraries using our list. The
server is only on a 10 Mbit connection at the present. It's a Pentium
200 with 128 Mb RAM. The database has about 130 records. This is a test
server at this time. If it proves useful, it will probably be upgraded
in the future to a 100 Mbit connection and a faster processor. I'd like
to avoid having to install SQL Server and learn it, if Access would do
the job.

Would this handle our load? I'm sorry I cannot give a better description
of how many patrons might want to make simultaneous connections. I
believe that Access can handle 10 connections per second but in the a
real world situation, I'm not sure what that means.

If you'd like to see our database on the test server, it is at:
http://129.137.89.150/resources/resources.html

Be aware that only the links that bring up the databases work. The jump
letters and the other links are meant to work on our main server.
Currently I use these pages to view the source, save it and load the
pages on our UNIX server as static pages. I do this because I don't know
what kind of load Access can handle.

Thank you for your help!

Elizabeth Hamilton
--
Elizabeth Hamilton,
Systems Development and Maintenance Analyst
University Libraries, University of Cincinnati
elizabeth.hamilton at uc.edu