Computer-Controlled Data Bank System at the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne

In July 1977, a pilot scheme began for the transfer of a small part of the Hancock Museum's geological data onto a computer data-bank. This data was geological site information, collected by a Job Creation team employed by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust. Computer facilities were made available at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, using specifically the Stamford Public Information and Retrieval System - SPIRES. The new process has been successfully applied to several other aspects of the museum's collections.