Data Crow is a cross platform freeware database program which is primarily being pitched as a media catalog manager, but which can clearly do much more. The program is Java based, which has its good and bad points – while it should run on any hardware that supports Java, it can also feel a little sluggish in operation, even with an empty database.

The main section deals with managing your collection of anything from movies to music, books and photos. You can also set it up to catalog people (a la CRM software) and software, in fact just about anything that can be grouped together in collections. To say it’s full featured is a bit of an understatement, and in fact using the beginner’s mode is essential to avoid being overwhelmed by the interface.

There’s a full set of import and export functions, which is essential of course, and a very neat feature whereby you can access online services in order to populate your database quickly and easily. For example, select this for movies and you’ll access the Amazon database and be able to select and import movies complete with cover art, detailed descriptions etc. It’s a huge time saver if you’ve got a big collection to set up.

The web server is also a very cool feature, as it instantly and very easily allows you to access your data from any web browser. Just enter in your computer’s IP address and the port you’ve selected and log in. Great for remote access. It’s also useful if you’re a habitual lender of media (or renter?) as there’s a sophisticated loan manager built in to the software, which makes it a cinch to run a library system of any or all of your stuff.

All in all this is a great program, although I’m a little worried that the performance hit on a fully populated database could be a problem. Definitely worth downloading though, especially if you have a desire to put your collection to work in any meaningful way. Neat.