Database software for archives

Mauro J. Mazzini <mjmconservation<-at->gmail<.>com> writes

>I would like to know your recommendations about the simplest
>software to manage a photo collection. ...
>...
>The person that will be in charge of the archive doesn't have
>previous experience with this kind of database.  They started with a
>Filemaker database that somebody made for them, but the database
>grow up to 2GB with only 60 images documented, since it adds the raw
>images to the base.

My experience with FileMaker is that it is an extremely good,
adjustable data base, user friendly and excellent with images.  I
have worked with it now for nearly 20 years, from the earliest
versions.  I have learnt it on the way with little help, although I
am not a computer person, and am running my accounting system as
well as large inventories of artefacts collections on it.  You can
do all you specify in your inquiry, and much more, without being an
expert in any way.

You can have as many different layouts as you want with as many or
as few fields showing, in various configurations, and flexible
graphic displays. I am a Mac user, but have to work with PC users as
well, and FileMaker crosses over easily.

As Robyn Waimouth says (Conservation DistList Instance: 29:2
Saturday, May 30, 2015), the images are better linked rather than
copied in, this keeps the size of the data base right down.

I have worked for a while in the Berndt Museum of Anthropology in
the University of Western Australia.  The museum worked with Mac
computers, and their data base was on FileMaker pro, and the IT
department also used it to produce the online interface that was
searchable by the public.  From memory they had a few thousands of
images at the time, and it worked perfectly well.

I would avoid so called "tailor made" programmes--with which I had
some experience in various museums--like the plague.  There are a
number of serious problems with them, the most obvious ones to my
mind:  usually the company that is called in to produce the system
tries to reinvent the wheel and gets plenty of bugs in the process;
usually the product is extremely user unfriendly, and can only be
operated by computer experts, even at the most basic level; and
worst of all, the company that was hired at great expense to make
the system too often goes out of business or changes owners or the
one developer you worked with leaves without passing the knowledge,
and you are stuck with an unwieldy system, that nobody knows how to
deal with, and if there is a major crash, heavens help you, cause
nobody else will.

Find a good FileMaker Pro person, get the person who operates the
data base to learn it; it can get complex, but *is* simple on a
level that allows you to do a lot, and support is available.

If for some reason FM doesn't suit you, find another commercially
available, trustworthy programme that can be modified to your needs.
Keep away from unknown programmes with unknown problems and no
ongoing support system--I can't emphasise this enough.

R.S. Gabrieli
Objects Conservator
+61 2 80035375
+61 8 9467 7363


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 29:3
                   Distributed: Monday, June 8, 2015
                        Message Id: cdl-29-3-005
                                  ***