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 the other fields if there is no match for any fields you can create a new record by simply filling out the information and clicking submit. The objective of this database is to keep it simple for everyone to add, modify and delete records.
The "Database Design And System Design" (2014) website Scope and boundaries of the system are fairly simple and straight forward. First off the current staff that would be in charge of the inventory of the artwork would be the curator and a few other art handlers. They would be the only ones in charge of adding, modifying, and deleting records from the database. Limiting access to the database keeps the data clean and refined. The scope of the database could be the number of users can increase, giving the guides or some other few employees only read access to see where the art located and information that can be helpful. Another scope is there can be more defining attributes added to the records; such as Completion date, Style,
