Hello: newbie Steve here.

I have very little experience with databases: 2 classes in a semester long ago--one on Access and one on MYSQL. With MYSQL (in both Windows 2003 R2/IIS and Windows 2003 R2/Apache environments), the class featured very small, mostly pre-structured databases, that were administered by the class as a whole. Because it's been a while, I would have to re-learn the content of the two survey classes, which I am willing to do, having kept the course materials.

I have very large collections of movies and music, which need to be organized. Some of my movies have been entered into an Excel spreadsheet with a few columns per film: title, release date, DVD wallet pocket number, etc. I want to expand what I have to include music reviews--my own and others--and to improve retrieval and accessibility. Many more films must be entered, however; and I haven't started organizing the much larger music collection. I thought perhaps it would be better to get some expert advice before carrying on with Excel entries, of which I have many thousands to go. Is there any way to transfer the Excel data to another program, other than manually?

Available materials: a few extra IDE and SATA-driven desktop computers, a number of monitors, a 2.4GHz-5GHz router, NICs, including wireless NICs. I also have CAT 5 cable if that is more appropriate. In terms of software, I own Access 2007 and SQL 2005. Of course, I can obtain the freely-downloadable MYSQL.

I also want to use this project as a developmental learning tool for creating other databases on subjects about which I am passionate, in terms of research, document reference, etc . I have lots of time to apply to this: no conflicts whatsoever. I would like to develop sophisticated databases that I would happily and freely share with others.

Any comments would be appreciated, especially those concerned about my starting a project with sophisticated potential.

Thanks,

Steve (forager)

Any help at all would be appreciated. I have about 900 movies listed on an Excel spreadsheet, each with columns for duration, year, comments et al. But that is only 20% of my inventory. Before I continue to enter data for the remaining films into the spreadsheet--which will take quite a long time--I thought I better get some guidance on how to transfer the data from Excel--or find out if entering the data into Excel is a bad idea to begin with.

Ultimately, I want to create a fully accessible, retrievable MySQL database, using the film collection database as a learning tool so that I can produce a much more complex, research-oriented MySQL database for music.
I realize that I am generalizing here. I'm not looking for help with specific database structure but rather am seeking a solid starting point with general direction.

I am fairly resourceful, and will work with any suggestions. I want to avoid spinning my wheels as much as possible. As I mentioned in my original posting, a while ago I attended basic database workshop classes, which featured some exercises in simple MySQL/PHP and Microsoft Access database creation.

you're in luck, mysql can easily import a csv, which of course you can easily produce from an excel spreadsheet

so go ahead and load up the rest of your films

R937, thanks. I'll look into CSVs.
Can anyone recommend some resources, Re: efficient data entry into databases? I'll be doing it all myself: a few thousand more records for the movie database, and many more times that for the music database.
Again, any suggestions are appreciated.