Several hundred art photos need to be stored for access by title,
subject and even by icons. I use my own photos and alter them with
computer for sale. I hear that Kodak has a program - is it the best?
What sources can you suggest?

Kodak EasyShare Software is very good when it comes to completely free
software.  It is very easy to install and use--I know someone who
isn't very computer literate who uses it to organize photos.  You can
find out more and download it from here:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=9/150/130&pq-locale=en_US

I personally use My Photos in Windows XP--it's integrated into the
operating system and lets me organize files the way I do with other
documents.  I have separate photo editing software, so this works just
fine.

There are any number of photo software packages for sale, as well. 
Consider what other features you want, such as editing, etc. before
making a purchase.

I can't say what's the best, but I really like CompuPic Pro from
Photodex

http://www.photodex.com

I have a personal collection of approximately 12,000 digital images,
and some video that I keep quite well organized using CompuPic along
with a sensible, catagorized directory structure.

You can select single directories, or multiple directories at once,
then sort by size, date, name, decompressed size, image area, etc. 
There are also some really nice batch conversion functions for
renaming many files at once, resizing, etc.  It's quite nice.

I am unfamiliar with the Kodak stuff, so I can't comment on that.

-Carl.