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Project Narrative - Stage one: 1990-1993:
defining the parts of the collection to be included
in the project; basic cataloguing; the execution of the agreed
technical procedures; the creation of an interactive system
for computer-steered access to a body of c. 28,000 images,
1990-1993
This stage saw the
implementation of the technical procedures agreed at the
commencement of the project (see chapter 2 below). With the
help and advice of the members of the Technical Advisory Group
we were able to commission the Bavarian firm Herrmann and
Kraemer to re-photograph the images on long-lasting
Ilfachrome Micrographic film, using cameras with many
automatic features which the firm has itself developed.
Herrmann and Kraemer co-operated with the Zürich firm Furrer +
Partner AG in achieving the electronic transfer to a CRV disc,
a "write once" laser videodisc (SONY), which we used for the
image-bank. For this first stage we adopted the widely-used
flat-file database Q&A from Symantec Inc.
as an easy-to-use storage and retrieval software. This was
linked to the laser video disc drive by a simple "resident"
programme.
The realisation of the technical concept had to
go hand-in-hand with basic archival work in the collection.
We decided that it would be feasible to attempt to incorporate
about 30,000 images in the project. Those holdings to be omitted
from the project had to be defined (Table 3a). Each image
taken into the project was given a unique reference number
which indicated its physical location in the collection. As
these reference numbers were being allocated, we began a process
of outline cataloguing. The database which was developed at
this stage was the basis for the full cataloguing in later
phases of the project. But it also made it possible to keep
the large numbers of images which were being sent to Herrmann
and Kraemer for rephotographing under exact and efficient
control. This was a point of major concern, since the images
were having to be put into a new format- and material- based
sequence to facilitate the photographic work in Garmisch-Patenkirchen,
and it was essential to be able to recreate this sequence,
so that we could locate each image automatically in the rolls
of film we received back, and subsequently on the laser disc.
These technical procedures were completed by the end of 1992.
This date is important. It helps to explain why, at this stage,
the images were not digitalised for CD-ROM purposes but transferred
onto a video disc. In our view, at that time, the procedures
for digitalising images for storage and access had not been
standardised well enough to justify our going in this direction,
and the amount of electronic storage then needed for 28,000
digitalised images was far beyond the kind of hardware we
could expect to purchase and amortise. In any case, the video
system has proved its worth, giving pictures of good quality
and working very quickly. The recall time for an image is,
on average, half a second.
Thus by the end of this stage of
the project we had a well-functioning interactive system in
place. This naturally facilitated the further work on the
project. It also meant that researchers were now working with
the images on screen, and no longer consulting the originals
directly. The image bank began to be used in teaching at the
University of Basel, starting with a Block Seminar in 1993
on the integrated use of written and visual sources in investigations
of indigenous social history in the period of early colonial
contact in the Cameroon Grassfields.
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