I am creating a membership database and I want try and elimante the creation of duplicate records. What i am trying to do is when the user creates a new record they enter the members email address. If the email address already exists it takes them to the record if it does not exist then it creates a new record. Any suggestions on how I might accomplish this?

You'll need to script the process:

put the e-mail address into a global field

using a self-join relationship to the global field, see if any records match

If they do, display the record; if not, create a new record.

In my experience, avoiding duplicates is the HARDEST thing to do, because the process usually slows down data entry and generally gets in the way.