No need to abandon Access.
Yes, you should split the database. It does not cost anything to do that.
And This will give you the ability to have multiple Backend files which will expand the size of data you can store.

Yea you should be fine in Access, the max database size is 2gig, but you can have multiple back end files as Sami suggested to get past that.

You probably already know this, but if you "Compact and Repair" your database (Under Database Tools), that will reduce the size of your database also.

I am also assuming that, since you're storing historical data, a lot of that three gigabytes is probably documents or images. You don't want to store that stuff inside the database. You want to store those as files on the server and then just store links to those in your database. I will bet that if that's the case, your database is probably only a couple of hundred megabytes in size, and most of that is data that can be stored outside the database. See Images.

Hi Trish
I concur with Richard. If you are storing documents and images in your Access tables then you really need to review a much better strategy with Richard's Images or Images Seminar. If you need help let us know.

John

This is awkward; I just want to let you know that I stand corrected. The database isn't even close to that size. We have a new cloud backup system, and I got an audit report and it showed up on that report. What did I look at when coming up with that number yesterday? I know I lost sleep over it, thinking my solution to using nothing but spreadsheets was a failure. Thank you all for your help. I do know about compact and repair. Also from Richards's classes, I know that images are not a good idea. Your classes have saved me many times over so far. Thanks again to all.

Hi Trish,
I am also collecting data in Access for our local Historical Society and Museum for our local families, buildings, and history photos documentation. Digitizing our libraries' contents is a big job. If ever you would like to exchange ideas on how to advance our systems, I am available anytime.

I don't see a way to directly reply to a specific user. However, Gary Smith, I would love to chat with you and get your ideas. Since we are a very small non-profit with only two paid staff members, they end up with volunteers to do this work. We are very lean in the technology area. Having a contact doing the same type of database would be a huge bonus. How can I contact you? I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post my email. Thank you for the response.

Trish here's my junk email (in case of spam) to get started with [email protected]. Contact me anytime. We too are a group of about 6 people that do anything (in a town of less that 500 population) in the society along with a few volunteers during fund raising events.