The best solution is probably the simplest — a spreadsheet.

Another trick I use is to email myself information (in gmail) and then “label” it. It becomes searchable (via the search field) and browsable (via the label). Simple and fast, accessible from any computer.

this sitch is more comparable to an art/artifact collection than to a library catalogue. i’ve used both access and filemaker pro to create databases for a variety of purposes, including helping someone to catalogue a private art collection. i prefer filemaker because of its flexibility and lower learning curve.

i’ve never used the more expensive software on offer for these purposes, so i can’t compare, but both filemaker and access can be used, and easily, to make fairly complex catalogues, which can link to other applications (such as spreadsheets to calculate the worth of the collection). you have greater control over the format if you use these apps, and they are much, much, much less expensive than apps created specifically for such purposes.

in addition, from what i’ve been told, most apps created for art and artifact collections tend to be designed for museums and large public collections, and are too expensive (several thousand dollars) and difficult to learn and use, not to mention too unwieldy for small private collections.

filemaker is preferable for mac.

the fields depend upon the collection. for the private art collection i helped with, i used the following fields:
*catalogue number (your own number system, which filemaker can provide if you choose)
*title
*artist/school/studio
*genre/discipline
*media
*dimensions
*country/culture
*century/era
*date of completion
*condition
*description
*provenance
*date of acquisition
*price
*notes

i agree with amit patel that the person should start with a spreadsheet —-and come up with as many relevant fields as possible. the fields should be broken down into the smallest units of information possible (e.g. if, for “provenance” the person wants to put the address of each dealer, be sure to have a field each for *dealer name *company *street address *city *state *zip *country)

then the data, so organized, will be easy to inport into any database the person subsequently builds.

I suggest you look at www.californiamapsociety.org and look for “Union Catalog”. You will find a cataloguing system using FileMaker Pro containing the fields specifically designed for printed map collections. If you are non-profit, the Huntington who own the templates will give them to you free and you can buy FileMaker Pro for about $160.At least this will give you an idea of how to go about setting up a database searchable in miriad ways. Note the web version is a dumbed down version because of server space. The non-online version is searchable in any of 65 fields. You can contact me direct for any questions, I helped develop the format.
Bill Warren