Project Narrative - Stage three, 1997-1998:
extending the cataloguing to cover all the images on the video
disc
The final phase of the project
was characterised by the implementation of established
cataloguing procedures using the ACCESS
relational database. The experience which we had
gained, especially with cataloguing the Cameroon and China
holdings in stage two, was applied to the remainder of the
images in the project. At the official closing date of the
project, all the c. 28,000 images had been catalogued, with
the exception of part of the India collection and the relatively
small collection of photographs from Indonesia. Some significant
editorial work on the database also remained to be done.
Important features of the catalogue which were stabilised at this stage
of the project include lists of the persons portrayed and
photographers, with the biographical data which was used to
derive information about locations and dates of photographs;
a list of photographic studios represented in the collection;
a hierarchically arranged set of keywords which allows searches
to take place at various levels of generality/specificity;
and a list of specific locations, grouped regionally and nationally.
(We were grateful for the assistance of two experts in Cameroonian
and Chinese geography in tackling the problems which we faced
in these two areas).
During this phase we also turned our
attention to "life after the project", and especially the
question of an electronic publication of the collection and
its database. This is an essential further step if the holdings
of images from Africa and Asia are to be returned in a practicable
way to the regions where they were taken. A trial CD-ROM of
350 Cameroonian photographs was made to test the transfer
of images and data to this medium, but on the decision of
the Academic Advisory Board this extension of our work was
put on hold until the actual project itself had been completed.
This third phase was not only dominated by the need to catalogue
large numbers of photographs with all deliberate speed. Finance
for the last year of project work was not easily forthcoming,
so project staff were forced to spend time which could have
been more profitably invested in other matters in a search
for finance from foundations, which was only partially successful
(Table 3b). Work on the project was able to continue till
31st December 1998 only because the Basel Mission was prepared
to give a provisional financial guarantee not foreseen in
its budget for that year.
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