Greetings all!
 
I am currently working on a database for the Virginia Department of
Historic Resources (which will be finished in only a couple of
weeks!) that will allow any individual to search through every single
site the state has recorded by catagories such as date of occupation,
cultural affiliation, theme, etc. It should be an exciting resource,
although it is limited, of course, by the quality of information recorded
by the excavators. In any case, it beats having to go through 30,000
paper records individually!!
 
        I was wondering if anyone can tell me whether SHPOs in other states
have undertaken projects like this and how useful (or frustrating) the
results have been. We are putting the information into Integrated
Preservation Software (IPS), which was a  system designed for the
National Park Services back in the dark ages (it is actually DOS-based!),
so I am also curious what software others have used.
 
You can respond either to me or the listserver depending on whether
anyone one else in  interested in reading the responses.
 
Thanks
 
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Stephanie Reiss