Software Reviews : Minark,Version 4.11 Publisher: Quantitative Systems,Pty. Ltd.,PO Box 67,St. Lucia,Qld 4067,Australia. U.S. office: PO Box 462,Cayucos,CA 93430 (telephone: [phone]) Year of Publication: 1988 Materials: Four diskettes,manual (approx. 170 pages),90-day phone consultation service Price: $495;site license: $495 for first station,$250 for second,$225 for third,$200 for fourth,$175 for fifth,$150 for each additional;annual update service,$495 (updates through 5.0,one-year phone consultation support and copies of MINARK News);limited extended support,$100 (updates through 4.xx and one-year phone consultation support) Machine Specificity: IBM PC,compatibles,generic MS DOS System Requirements: 512K RAM,two drives Effectiveness: Good User-Friendliness: Fair Documentation: Fair

Abstract

MINARK is a large, versatile database management system designed specifically to meet the needs of archaeologists. It can accommodate special complexities—multiple record types, sparse records, repeated variables within a record—typically found in data from multiple archaeological sites. These same capabilities make it useful to other scholars for such diverse databases as bibliographies, historical records, reading and lecture notes, and administrative records. However, this flexibility comes at a price: the start-up effort is considerable.