I have FM Pro 8.5 for PC and I would like to create a searchable online library catalog for my department's library. I'm a newbie to FM so I'm not sure how to go about creating the database and search page and making it available online. Anyone out there able to help?

Edited April 30, 200718 yr by Guest

Before you start, you should ask yourself some questions, such as below.

Questions from a technical point of view:

What's the size of your department? What network traffic (searches per hour) would you expect?

Would IWP (Instant Web Publishing, see http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/fmp85_instant_web_pub.pdf) already be a solution, considered that you can display only 25 records per screen in list view? Or do you have to use FileMaker Server Advanced?

Compare with the tech specs of FM 8.5 http://www.filemaker.com/products/fmp/tech_specs.html and FMSA http://www.filemaker.com/products/fmsa/tech_specs.html

Questions from an organizational point of view:

What's the size of the library? Who catalogs the documents, and how much time is reserved for that? Did you evaluate commercial library information systems which would may be cheaper than the total cost of hardware, developing the DB and the website, setting it up and maintaining it (including regular backups). Did you talk with a librarian about his experiences with library information systems and usage of library standards? Is there already a professional library information system available in your organization?

This site might be of interest. My friend is head librarian at our HS and she has mentioned this to me when I was thinking of building a library system for a local school district.

library automation info