linking data from Access database with Outlook

[mr123]

I want to import details from an Access database into Outlook's Shared Contacts folder. Why won't it let me import directly into the Shared Contacts (sub folder of Public). When the list of Outlook folders to import into comes up, the Shared Contacts folder is not available. I am currently creating a temporary folder off my own personal Contacts folder (not personal address book) and block copying the data from there into Shared Contacts, having first deleted the entire contents of Shared. If this sounds a strange thing to be doing, it is because over the network we keep all our contacts information updated in Access because their records include lots of fields/coding not relevant in Outlook. However, we don't want inexperienced users going into the Access databas, but they do need to have access to contacts email addresses, telephone numbers etc., At present I regularly transfer the relevant data from Access to Shared Contacts in Outlook to make it accessible to everyone on the network, to avoid having to update both Access and Outlook manually.