A relational database for the management of the collections housed in the G.B. Grassi Museum (University of Rome «La Sapienza»): a general survey

There is a growing need to store scientific collections in electronic archives, since scientific museums are beginning to be considered an important tool for cataloguing biodiversity. Moreover, the idea of a connected network that unifies databases of different institutions to create a «world museum» is becoming reality. The following paper describes the relational database recently realised for the G.B. Grassi Museum. It was designed to give access to external researchers using the web. The database was created following the relational model which facilitates collection management and optimises searches for all users, with respect to the hierarchical one.