Database Environment Paper

Shawn Callaway

DBM 380

Database Environment Paper

James O’Brien

February 16, 2015

Museum Analysis

The database for the art museum would be a very simple one that is not too hard to manage or maintain. There are not too many moving parts to complicate the data. When creating this database it is very important to give each piece of artwork a unique identification number. With each piece of art there needs to also be the artist and locations where the art is displayed or stored. With the tracking of its location you know where the asset is at all times. This database makes it simple for the curator to analyze which pieces of art are in the museum and which artists are being displayed.

The problems that I can for see with his data base are duplicates. Duplicates can happen possibly when a piece of art is moved from storage to the displays. An employee could possibly re add it as a new piece of artwork. Therefore creating a duplicate, one would show as being displayed the other left in storage. I can also see the database seeing neglect because art stays in museums for a long period of time and is not moved around much. I can see that the data can become stagnant by the employees forgetting to update the database when artwork is moved around. Constraints that can be placed on the database would be to place a limitation for a piece of art with the same title name and by the same artist. Keeping those the names of artist and artwork accurate will also increase the accuracy of the database.

The best objectives to have for this database is to make it as simple as possible for the employees to find, add, delete and modify the information located within. The best way that I can think of to do this would be the 1NF. This would be one place to add delete or modify. I would create a form that you can type in the name of the artwork and if there is an already existing record all the data would populate. You would then be able to know it location. The same would be for...