The solution to all your problems with my database cleanup suggestions... A derived compound Description field.

[Fred Slota]

The database has separate fields for Number, Type, Variation and Printing, and generates a compound field of Item Number that incorporates all four pieces of information.

 

A similar thing could be done for other fields to generate a compound Description field.  To accommodate people with different opinions of what is important, or to accommodate different tasks with different information priorities, these items could be selected from a list, like "Columns to View...", and they would be concatenated together with separating "; ". Or with added identification labels, "(cover artist)".  Or with a more data merge, Mad Libs style, "I.Notes (notes); I.[ItemDescription]; I.[CoverArtist] (cover)"

 

And this field should be locally, dynamically generated and not carried as part of the "official database".

 

The key data would be stored in one and only one place, consistent and more reliably searched.  Repeated wording related to a field would no longer bloat the database.  Display format would be consistent.  The database would be smaller.