A few years ago, I decided to put my ordnance collection into an
Access database (long live Microsoft!).
The only regret I have with this tool is that Access will not allow
images or special characters to be used in the fields of its individual
records. However, It will allow you to place a local hyperlink in
a field, that leads you to an image or a document with special characters
in it. The database of my current collection takes up about 1.3MB
of file space.
I designed the organization of this database to allow simple, web-based
searches to be accomplished. (NOTE: the creation of the web pages
that search a database are decidedly not simple to create!)
Even without the automated searches, I find this database to be a
great time saver.
I break my ordnance collection database into several sub-databases
that I call Categories. (Access calls them Tables.) This was a very
arbitrary decision. The main advantage of it is that individual records
for each sub-database (Category) are much shorter. These main
categories are:
I give each record of any Category a unique Catalog Number. For example,
if I get a complete artillery round, I assign all of its components
the next unique Catalog Number. Thus, if the next unused Catalog Number
was 234, I would assign (manually) this number to a new record in
each of the categories: Shells, Fuzes, Cases, and Primers. These Catalog
Numbers serve to forever relate the original piece of ordnance as
I received it.
I also place small adhesive paper tags, with this Category Number
on it, on all of the components of this piece or ordnance. If I should
subsequently acquire a fuze, I would assign it the next unique Catalog
Number, 235, and only create a new record in the Fuzes Category of
the database. Please do not confuse this Catalog Number with the record
numbers the database uses for its internal manipulations. These record
numbers are not unique, except within their own Category (i.e., table),
while the Catalog Number is unique across the entire database, and
allows me to access all the original components (from all of the categories)
of the piece of ordnance.
The fields within each Category all begin with the local record number
and my global Catalog Number. After that, the selection of what fields
should be included are a personal decision. The following set of fields
are an example drawn from my Shells Category: