My favorite database program (for the past 15 years) is called AskSam. It's a full-text search program that allows you to define fields if you wish. Small, fast and free-form, it stores stuff in ASCII, allows you to import text files directly and doesn't care if all records have the same number or type of fields. It permits Boolean searches. It's the one that made DigiTrad possible.

AskSam was developed for librarians. The old DOS program--which was the best one, IMO--is no longer supported, but there's a Windows version which can be downloaded for a free 30-day trial