Message-Id: <mailto:199407151724.MAA04351@library.wustl.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jul 1994 09:12:12 +1100 From: Marion Matters <mailto:MARIONM@MERCURY.LIBRARY.LEG.STATE.MN.US> Subject: Re: Image Vision To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB <mailto:IMAGELIB@ARIZVM1.BITNET>
Paul Gherman writes:> Over the years at Kenyon, we have cataloged 50,000 of our slides and placed
> them into a database which we now find is useless as an end user retrieval
> system. Before we begin again, we need to give thought to the eventual goal,
> and plan to integrate our efforts into some national plan. Most our users of
> image colletions browse through our physical collections until they find what
> they want. In an electonic world, will thumbnail images work in the same way.
> Digital files are not arranged like our physical files.
Seems like one way to get started is to describe as specifically as possible why the database is useless as an end user retrieval system. Does it have to do with not being able to browse? Browse how? Does a user start at one end of the collection and work through it to the end? Are there other logical starting points for some kinds of browsing? Couldn't anything in the existing database be salvaged to provide logical starting points for browsing? To help create logical groupings of browsable "thumbnails" for specific research purposes? I'm not sure I'd entirely want to scrap existing textual descriptions and classifications in favor of visually-oriented classification (things shaped liked this, colored like that, etc.). Exploit each for what each can do best.
>
> I sense that we have folks on this listserv from different communites. It would
> be good to hear the reactions to some of these issues.
>
> Any reactions?
>
>
> Paul M. Gherman
> Director of Libraries
> Olin and Chalmers Library
> Kenyon College
> Gamibier, OH 43022
> 614-427-5186 voice
> 614-427-2272 fax
> mailto:ghermanp@kenyon.edu
>
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