Los Angeles - August 4, 2000. Cuadra Associates (CA), developer of the STAR information management and retrieval software, has announced a new product designed to meet the needs and budgets of small and medium size museums, historical societies, and permanent archives, The product addresses their most important single technical requirement: collections management.
Cuadra CMS (Collections Management System) packages a version of the award-winning Cuadra STAR software with the STAR/Museums application, which provides a full array of features and capabilities needed by most museums, historical societies and permanent archives but excludes STAR's application design tools for customizing the application. The new product, which has been accredited by the Canadian Heritage Information Network, is a ready-to-use, task-oriented application that provides for accessioning, inventory management, cataloging support, movement control, loans management, conservation management, exhibits management, insurance management, deaccessioning and disposal control, export of data into CHIN, MARC, and other formats, statistical and management reports, and links to images of items in the collection.
"Over the years, as we have added new capabilities to our collections management application, we have found that it meets more and more of the needs of museums and archives, right out of the box," said Dr. Carlos A. Cuadra, president of Cuadra Associates. "This either eliminates or sharply reduces the need for our customers to do any customization."
According to Cuadra, with the downsizing that has been occurring in both corporate America and the non-profit sector, the staff resources to do the kind of customizing that was popular in years past are no longer readily available. "That's what makes the new Cuadra CMS product an attractive option for small museums, historical societies, and permanent archives," he said. "First, no customizing needs to be done and, second, the price of the product starts at under $10,000 in the U.S. and Canada. That price includes a three-user license, three full days of training, and a year of upgrades and customer support."
Like the fully customization version of STAR, Cuadra CMS runs on Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers and on a number of UNIX platforms. Customers who later decide to customize the product to meet their unique requirements have the option of purchasing the STAR graphical design toolkit.
Cuadra Associates' STAR software was designed specifically to provide fast access to descriptive information of all kinds. It can be used in a variety of information management applications, by libraries, film and document archives, museums, law offices, publishers, and corporate information and records centers. STAR's records management application has been certified by the Department of Defense as compliant with DoD 501S.2-STD. This standard has also been endorsed by the National Archives and Records Administration for use by other Federal agencies.
