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Slide Indexing Methods – Visual and Topical By Ted Elden, architect / photographer ABODIA Cabinets have been used for storing, sorting, and organizing slides in fields as diverse as medicine, teaching, scientific research, architecture, engineering and photography. The system allows much flexibility in arranging any collection of transparencies, in any of several formats with the additional advantage of easy viewing, scanning and retrieval. Below is a discussion on typical Slide Indexing Methods Indexing To optimize the use of the cabinets, an index should be developed that not only scans the entire collection, but also depicts areas from which one may select individual transparencies. Hence, a comprehensive index is the first and primary step in cataloging your collection. Such an index might scan the collection with general categories, which would be consequently divided with sub-headings as required. To develop a suitable index, several should be examined. Dewey Decimal, alphabetical, chronological, by subject, project, location, topic. Consider how you and others deal with your collection and indexes. Here are how organizations organize their slides. Retrieval & Expansion Changing or expanding your collections is a constant problem. What areas will expand? A flexible growth system allows the continual adding of viewing racks adjacent to related topics and the ability to move whole racks to other locations in the collection. As individual topics grow (or decrease), you may adjust the collection – keeping it in sequential order. Add additional racks to create storage for any subject or move a subject to join it with other related topics in another location in the collection. Additional ideas for dealing with your changing collection may come as you reflect on how you use your slides. Cross Indexing This is the critical index which, when well developed, should solve the previous problems of retrieval and expansion. Work closely with the users of the collection to determine their retrieval indexing needs. Card Catalog An index sheet and tabs are included with each cabinet. Nevertheless, it may be important to detail the topics more specifically in a card catalog. The card storage drawers are well suited for index cards. Computer Data Base Data Bases have proved effective to manage complex information. Files can hold all information or at least the information on a category or subject. The complete information on each slide image is called a record. Fields are the individual categories: image location, project, name, date, project location, description, related topics, subjects, etc. With logic and skill, you can locate individual and related images. The Data Base points to the existence and location of images. Then you must find them in your system. A good visually accessible collection is often much more effective than a verbose, time consuming data base index - search method. Words and images are vastly different. Scanning hundreds of images in a few minutes can speed the search. Picking slides off a rack is far quicker than searching through word indexed systems of drawers, plastic sheets, etc.
Abodia Lighted Slides Website:- www.Abodia.com PO Box 3201, Charleston, WV 25332
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304 344-2335, Fax: 304 344-4764, |
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