I did a project this past spring for the libraries at the California College of Arts where I converted their New Materials Library database from a legacy system to the libraries’ catalog. It just got unveiled this week: http://library.cca.edu/search~S6 (search for keyword=air to get some results)

I suggested converting the database and interface to Drupal (which would have been a lot of fun), but the Library Director preferred using the library catalog (Innovative Interface’s Millenium). Though I was initially disappointed to not use Drupal, I think using the catalog was a good choice and I’m pleased with the end results.

The legacy database was an old FileMaker system and the data had to be converted to MARC record flat-file format, which I accomplished using freeware called MARCedit. Custom javascript I wrote displays the sample images. This project required considerable taxonomy definition and data cleanup as descriptors were free-entry.

See: http://library.cca.edu/search~S6