Welcome to VCat and the VCat Users’ Group

A Note from the Developer about this Database

March 26, 2008

VCat—new name, new release

In 2004 I began work on a relational database (in Filemaker Pro, or FMP) to replace an old flat file FMP database template that I provided for many years for free starting in 1997. I decided to call it VireoCat, standing for “visual resources open cataloging utility.” Being a bird-watcher, the vireo is also a bird, so that seemed nice. Filemaker completely revamped with version 7 and became a truly relational database on par with Access. I released many copies of VireoCat on CD at the Miami VRA conference in 2005. The early versions were worked on when CCO and Core 4 were both in beta stages of development. As these standards have been finalized and published, I adapted VireoCat with the goal of providing a free database utility that could handle the new world of Core 4 XML, hoping that this would be a benefit to our profession.

At the recent conference in San Diego, I realized many had problems with the name—evidently not many birdwatchers in our group! So with this new release (version 3), I have decided to simplify the name to VCat. I am very happy to announce that the Core 4 xml export validates and that there is also a very complete tabbed (which can be converted to Excel) export feature. I have tested this new version with 28,000 records (Archivision data) which has been very useful for testing and debugging. I would like to thank Scott Gilchrist and Mark Smith at Archivision for really making this new version possible.

You will need a copy of Filemaker version 7, 8 or 9 to use this database; otherwise it is free for your use. I look forward to working with the user group with this new version! I think we can accomplish a great deal together. To experiment with sharing XML records and to work on VCat as a group, sharing problems and solutions, please join the listserv.

Best wishes,

Susan Jane Williams