Very productive discussion!
Hi everybody!
Very interesting topic for me – as I have experienced the same challenge(s)…
Based on my experience so far (archiving fotos for more 40 years, 25 years of which in electronic form) I would recommend two things:
a) Don’t mix a key (unique identifier of a photo) with descriptive attributes, i.e. – as Mark12 wrote – start with 1 and number sequentially. Add all other information on a photo as additional attributes (or fields). Based on my extensive experience as a member of an organization department of a large multinational country almost all “meaningful” keys will prove as insufficient sooner or later for various reasons – so don’t try to do this.
b) Don’t try to find a “fancy” application software for the cataloging job – stick with the simple features of the operating system (or file explorer, etc.) of your computer. Otherwise regular updates with the need for adaptation of your existing data – or even the software provider going “belly-up” – may prove an unnecessary “pain in the a..”. Using MS Office applications – like Mark12 recommended – MIGHT BE acceptable (because it is a global standard unlikely to disappear or change too much in the foreseeable future), but as somebody who had to upgrade MS Word formats at least 5 times already (about 50.000 documents in total), I would advise to be careful even with these applications!
Generally speaking: Keep your “system” as simple as possible.
Regards and good luck
Thomas
I somewhat must disagree, Thomas.
I need the photo to have a few descriptive elements that will allow identification by name.
That said, I do agree it would be follow to include a complete descriptive list. This is where a unique ID number will be needed.
There is another issue, and that is if the catalog file or program are not longer accessible, then all that work will have to be either recovered, or rebuilt from scratch (and happening once is once to many).
Maybe using the Google tools (Docs and Picasa) could be a good combination, or just Doc’s for its easy of access and portability.
Flying Pencil, may I ask if the discussion could be broadened to include what may happen to personnel collections in the event of the untimely, or timely, demise of the owner? I don’t mean to sound morbid, but there must be many collections which have been thrown out due to no prior arrangements having been made. Regards, SFF.
That is a good topic!
Suggest you start a new topic for that. Never knows when something unfortunate happens.
Cheers!
To be continued….
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