A project is being conducted to test the feasibility of an information storage and retrieval system for museum specimen data, particularly for natural history museums. A pilot data processing system has been developed, with the specimen records from the national collections of birds, marine crustaceans, and rocks used as sample data. The research includes design of a computerized system, requisite programming, and analysis of the requirements for a data processing system sufficient to meet the needs of a large natural history museum. Such a system is intended to be generalized and applicable to the requirements of other smaller museums and to networks of museums. Study of the costs of museum data processing by conventional methods and by computerized systems are being considered together with the organizational requirements of museum administrations to meet the impact of data processing technology. Recommendations cover the inclusion of specimen records from the Division of Meteorites, completion of programming for the inverted files, design and programming of the Systems Executive-Retrieval Generator and the query system, user experience trails, management analysis, experimentation with techniques of interrelating the scientist and the data files, and orientation and instruction of users. (Author/JB)