Cataloging In Filemakerpro

THDL Toolbox > Images & Immersive Technologies > Cataloging In FileMakerPro

Cataloging Images in FileMakerPro

Templates to Download

The section provides access to various prefabricated templates for creating and maintaining image databases. At this point we are making available templates using FileMaker Pro.

The downloads need to be gotten from * external link: Filemaker cataloging system to finish the migration of this page.

If you have FileMaker Pro 5 or more recent, follow one of these links to download the '.fp5' files:

For Windows (.zip file - 657kb)
For Mac (.sit file)

If you do not have FileMaker Pro, follow one of these links to download a stand-alone application

For Windows (.zip file - 2.9Mb - you will need to unzip the file and then run "ImageDBTemplate Solution.EXE")
For Mac

Download a guide to using the FileMaker Pro templates (.rtf format - right-click on the file to save it to your computer)

NEW: Download a guide to using the forthcoming guide to using the FileMaker 7 template (.rtf format - right-click on the file to save it to your computer)

View an extremely provisional page on developing FileMaker.databases

Filemakerpro Image Cataloging Manual

This is a guide to using FileMaker to enter data about images. There are currently two versions of the Image Database template: one made in FileMaker Pro 5 and one in FileMaker Pro 7. We have maintained two different versions because some contributors have FileMaker 5 or 6, which can read a FileMaker 5 file. FileMaker 7 files can not be opened by an earlier version, however it is a superior application for our purposes, most notably because it has at least some Unicode support, which can be beneficial for diacritics, Chinese and Unicode Tibetan (although the support is somewhat inadequate in places).

FileMaker Developer can be used to create "stand-alone" FileMaker solutions, which means that a user does not need to have FileMaker in order to add records to a database. However if users would like to modify the fields or layouts of their databases, the need to have their own copy of FileMaker Pro. For these two reasons, THDL is providing both stand-alone solutions and FileMaker source files.

Although some notes on using FileMaker may appear in this documentation, for additional information on using FileMaker Pro 5, please see online draft documentation . We have not yet created such notes for FileMaker Pro 7.

Layouts in the Image Database

FileMaker uses a system of "layouts" to …

Follow this link to view the fields incorporated in each layout.

Fields in the Image Database

This is a listing of the total fields that appear in this image database, incorporated in the "Complete" layout.

Content Analytical Metadata

This section deals with describing the content of the media that is being catalogued. In general it will be an image, but the term "media" has been used because it is more inclusive.

File Name

File names are dealt with more extensively in the Administrative Metadata section below. The value that appears here is identical to the File Name which appears in the Administrative Metadata section. If you change one, the other will change as well.

Keywords

At this point there is no controlled vocabulary in THDL. As contributors provide input, we hope to piece together a system of effective keywords. For now, the keywords fields can be used to add general topics. Additionally we have attempted to implement at prototypical scheme for a three-tiered system for creating thematic hierarchies, which is found in the

Keywords
Keywords 2: This is to allow for keywords in another language.
Keywords 2 Language

Caption

This should be repeatable so that you can have as many captions as you would like.

Caption: This is limited to a single sentence. Every image must have a caption – it is the minimum textual description for images – and this must be of the type "General". Additional captions specific to disciplines may also be added, specifying the caption type below. Use Caption 2 in the Filemaker database to add an additional caption or a caption in a language other than English. Note: cataloguers may be tempted to insert references to the place of recording into the caption, such as, “A woman in Lhasa”, “Morning rituals in Sera Monastery”, etc., however, it has to be kept in mind that the location of images is kept track of in the “location” field within the image catalog record, and thus the location of images can be displayed together with captions. Thus references to the location of an image should be kept to a minimum – the information is redundant.

Caption Type: “General”, “Art historical”, etc. The default is “General”. A single picture can have multiple captions either by the same people, or by different people. Each is “typed”, such that one might make captions that are “art historical” which focus on art historical aspects of the image’s content, someone who is examining 1000 photos and ignores everything except the clothes would use "type=clothes" analysis, etc. and so forth. We have to keep track of these “types”, and provide an exhaustive list for people to utilize, or suggest an addition for.

Caption Language:

Caption Creator: This is the author of caption.

Caption Date:

Description

This should be repeatable so that you can have as many descriptions as you would like.

Description: This is limited to one paragraph (to a page length) describing the content of the image in detail beyond the caption. Images do not require a description, but in many cases this further analytical detail will be advisable. Additional descriptions specific to disciplines may also be added, specifying the description type below.

Description Type:

Description Language:

Description Creator:

Description Date:

Recording Note

This can be used for an explanation about the situation in which the photo was shot, why it was shot, special circumstances, etc.

Private Notes

These notes are private only for the use of the photographer, such as information about how it links to other private documentation, or personal notes about relationships to the people in the image, etc.

Essay Location

Enter a URL or file name for a resource that uses the image.

Collection

The image should be classifiable in multiple images. Ultimately this should be a GDMS scheme that is not part of the individual image record – it has to do with how individual images are grouped and ordered together. For the time being, as a matter of work flow, we are keeping track of these within image cataloguing records. An example of a three tired hierarchical Collection could be “PreBuddhist Archaeological Monuments Collection”, which contains Series such as “Funerary Grounds”, “Fortresses”, and so forth, which then in turn are divided up into Subseries dedicated to specific sites exemplifying each. This section is maintained in a separate database that deals with Collections, Series and Subseries of images ("Collections.fp5", "Series.fp5", "Subseries.fp5"), so those databases must be updated if you want the choices to appear in the Media Database.

Collection Title:

Series Title:

Subseries Title:

Sequence Title:

Order Within Sequence:

Thematic Classification

This is a 3-tiered hierarchy from which the cataloger can choose up to three different thematic classifications. We will be experimenting in building something from the ground up in conjunction with a feature thesaurus, which at the top level would be a “geographical feature”. This will allow people to see all dogs, all yaks, etc.

1st Classification

Thematic Level 1
Thematic Level 2
Thematic Level 3

2nd Classification

Thematic Level 1
Thematic Level 2
Thematic Level 3

3rd Classification

Thematic Level 1
Thematic Level 2
Thematic Level 3

Named Individuals

These are names of individuals in a given photograph. The names of Tibetans should be in a form of a phoneticized name, followed by the name in THDL extended Wylie within parentheses eg: Konchok Jiatso (dkon mchog rgya mtsho).

Ethnicity of Content

This is the ethnicity of items or people photographed. At this point, the values for this are not solidified - see the THDL Encyclopedia of Cultures for our evolving topic map.

Ethnicity
Subethnicity Level 1
Subethnicity Level 2
Subethnicity Level 3

Geographical Metadata

Photographing/Recording Location

Coordinates

Use if relevant, and if the recording location is a point without a gazetteer entry. Otherwise, the Gazetteer will provide the coordinates. If a GPS reading has been taken at the point of recording, the result may be in degrees or UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator – metric units)

Degrees: Use this section if the coordinates are in Degrees.

East/West Longitude: Specify here whether the reading is in East or West longitude.
Longitude (X) Degrees:
Longitude (X) Minutes: Sometimes a GPS reading will have minutes followed by a decimal point. In the case of a reading like 31°41.354', "41.354" should be entered for minutes.
Longitude (X) Seconds:
Longitude (X) Decimal: This is for decimal degrees when the value is degrees followed immediately by a decimal point, not a value in seconds. This is the value that is the right of the decimal. In the case of 31.68923°, the value to be entered here is "68923".
North/South Latitude: Specify here whether the reading is in North or South latitude.
Latitude (Y) Degrees:
Latitude (Y) Minutes: Sometimes a GPS reading will have minutes followed by a decimal point. In the case of a reading like 31°41.354', "41.354" should be entered for minutes.
Latitude (Y) Seconds:
Latitude (Y) Decimal: This is for decimal degrees when the value is degrees followed immediately by a decimal point, not a value in seconds. This is the value that is the right of the decimal. In the case of 31.68923°, the value to be entered here is "68923".

UTM: Use this if the coordinates are in UTM (metric units). The figures will generally be a 6 or 7-digit number.

UTM Zone: For example the zone value for the Porong region of Tibet is "45".
X (East): A sample value from Porong is "414484".
Y (North): A sample value from Porong is "3170804".

General:

Latitude: This is only used if the data is imported in a form that does not allow for separating out the degrees, minutes, seconds.
Longitude: This is only used if the data is imported in a form that does not allow for separating out the degrees, minutes, seconds.
Elevation:
Units: This refers to the units in which the elevation is measued, for example meters or feet.
Orientation: This refers to the orientation from which a photograph was taken.

Administrative

This is the location where the photograph was taken in terms of the national administrative hierarchy scheme. It needs to be drawn from the Gazetteer. The Gazetteer THDL ID should be entered here, and the Image Database should use that ID to display the place name for the public. This database is connected to versions of THDL’s Administrative and Cultural Gazetteers. Using the popup lists below, scroll through the features in the Administrative Gazetteer (AdminGaz.fp5), starting at the country-level, and proceding to the province-level units within that country, and so on.

Once you have reached the most granular level you can (whether it is prefecture-level, county-level, etc), copy the Feature ID to the right and paste it into the yellow box below, "Paste Image Location Feature ID Here".

Country:
First-level administrative unit: This includes feature types such as province, autonomous region, directly administered municipality, development zone (Nepal).
Second-level administrative unit : This includes feature types such as prefecture, autonomous prefecture, municiplaty, district (Nepal).
Third-level administrative unit: This includes feature types such as county, city, autonomous county, VDC (Nepal), municipality (nagarpalika) (Nepal).
Fourth-level administrative unit: This includes feature types such as townships with urban registered population (zhen), townships without urban registered population (xiang), district (chenguan), hamlet (Nepal), town (Nepal).
Fifth-level administrative unit: This includes feature types such as village, urban sub-district
Spot feature (point of interest): This is for a specific building, etc. Note: There is a potentially misleading relationship between spot features and administrative features in this entry form. For instance if a school is determined to be in skyid thang Township but is not located in any particular village, the school will appear as an option as if it were at the same level as a village in skyid thang.
Spot feature 2: a specific building, etc.
Notes: Notes on the recording location.

Cultural

This is the location where the photograph was taken in terms of the cultural hierarchy scheme. This database is connected to versions of THDL’s Administrative and Cultural Gazetteers. Using the popup lists below, scroll through the features in the Cultural Gazetteer (CulturalGaz.fp5,), starting with the Cultural Region, and proceding to the Cultural Subregion, and so on. Once you have reached the most granular level you can (whether it is prefecture-level, county-level, etc), copy the Feature ID to the right and paste it into the yellow box below, "Paste Image Location Feature ID Here".

Cultural Region:
Cultural Subregion:
Cultural Subregion 2:
Cultural Subregion 3:

Portal to Image Location File

Although the features may have been chosen in the fields above, an additional step is required for storing it into the appropriate database. This additional step helps in maintaining records and also allows multiple features to be associated with an image. For the most granular administrative feature copy the Feature ID and paste it into the Feature ID box within the Image Location portal box. You will see that the file name for the image you are working on appears by automatically. Each time a Feature ID or Location Free Text is added, and additional space to add Feature ID will be created. If more than 3 feature IDs are needed, scroll down at the left of the Image Location portal box. Add data into the Location Free Text box if you are unable to find a Feature ID.

Content Location

xxx

Administrative

Enter the location of the most important content of the photograph terms of the national administrative hierarchy scheme. Examples are a painting made in sde dge, but photographed in London, or a woman from A mdo photographed far from her home in Western Tibet, etc. Using the popup lists below, scroll through the features in the Administrative Gazetteer (AdminGaz.fp5), starting at the country-level, and proceding to the province-level units within that country, and so on.

Country:
Province-level:
Prefecture-level:
County-level:
Township-level:
Subtownship-level:
Point of interest/Spot feature: a specific building, etc.
Point of interest/Spot feature2: a specific building, etc.

Cultural

Enter the location of the most important content of the photograph in terms of the ethno-cultural regional scheme. For now these fields are connected to a database called CulturalGaz.fp5, therefore in order to add values to the pop-up lists, you need to add features directly to that database. Ultimately any cultural location will simply use an ID that refers to the Gazetteer, which will yield:

Cultural Region:
Cultural Subregion 1:
Cultural Subregion 2:
Cultural Subregion 3:

Portal to Content Location File

xxx

Administrative Metadata

This section deals with information such as file names, photographers, copyrights, the date the media object was created, the location in which it is stored, etc.

File name

THDL ID: THDL file ID.
Other ID 1: A legacy name that people might use for reference purposes.
Other ID 2: A legacy name that people might use for reference purposes.

Quality

Options are:

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Unusable

Photographer

Name (Photographer): In order to select multiple photographers, hold down the Shift key as you select photographers. If you want to reset it to a single photographer, choose a selection without holding down the Shift key. In order to add additional options to the pop-up list, click "Edit…" in the pop-up list and add a new value. Note that if you delete any values, they will no longer be available in the pop-up list. Also note that if you edit any of the values in the pop-up list, it will NOT affect records that have that pre-edited value.

Copyrights / Reproduction:

Copyright Holder: Proposed options are as follows:

Photographer: Copyright by photographer

THDL: Copyright by THDL

Reproduction: Proposed options for permitted use are as follows:

No limit: No credit attribution required for reproduction

Prohibited: Reproduction prohibited

Credit required: Reproduction permitted with proper crediting

Contact copyright holder: We must make sure to provide contact details

Rights Notes: This may be the place to enter contact details for the copyright holder?

Affiliations

Sponsor: This is the name of the source(s) that have funded the photographer's work. This is multiple-select, and specifies funding grants/agencies who have paid for the photography.

Host organization: This is the name of the organization to whom the photographer belongs.

Project: This is the project (such as Sera Monastery, Lhasa Neighborhoods, etc.) under the auspices of which the photographer was working.

Workflow Data

Temporary Workflow Data/Old Path Data: This preserves information from an earlier storage of the image, such as the folder location of the image on the photographer's hard drive. It is to be used in reconstructing the image's relationship to other images and/or its entry in handwritten or other forms of cataloguing records.

Keep/Trash: This indicates whether an image is to be kept in the database or deleted.

Select: This indicates records selected for performing batch processes in FileMaker.

Rotation: This indicates the images that need to be rotated in a batch rotation if the database software doesn't have direct scriptable rotation capacity.

Original Media Asset

This refers to the source media for the digitized object. It may be a slide, a print image, a negative, a video cassette, etc. If the object is "born digital", such as an image taken with a digital camera, this section deals with that as well.

Source asset recording time (i.e time of making original photograph)

For digital photos, this information will generally be automatically extracted from the file on the camera storage media. However for slides and photos that have been digitized, or for digital photos for which the dates have been gone bad, this has to be entered manually.

Asset creation year: This must be 4 digits. Make sure you don't hit the return key when you enter your data. If you do that, then the entry will be invalid, because a return symbol will be inserted. The same applies for all entries that specify a format for entry in the database.

Asset creation month: This is the name of the month in English.

Asset creation date: This must be a number between 1 and 31.

Asset creation hour: A 2-digit hour must be entered according to a 24-hour clock. For instance 5 pm must be entered as "17".

Asset creation minute: This must be a number between 0 and 59 inclusive.

Asset creation second: This must be a number between 0 and 59 inclusive.

Asset creation season: This choices are summer, fall, winter, spring

Asset creation day of week: The day of the week in English.

Asset creation date: This is a field for legacy data, primarily extracted from records in past databases. The dates are generally in the form of '7/13/1999'.

Asset creation time: This is a field for legacy data, primarily extracted from records in past databases. For instance, records imported from Cumulus contain times in the form of '10:51:28 AM'.

Asset creation date/time: This is a field for legacy data, primarily extracted from records in past databases. The dates are in the form of '7/13/99 10:51:28 AM'.

Asset time note: This is for any notations about the date or time, such as “it was late afternoon”, etc.

Weather conditions: Briefly indicate the weather conditions at the time of recording the asset.

Source Asset Location Details:

This refers to the location where the original slide, cassette, etc is stored.

Storage location of original source: Some examples are "the Rare Collections of Alderman", "Francoise Pommaret’s personal holdings", etc.

Storage Location Notes: This is for additional notes about where the original media object is stored.

Original media ID: The other IDs in the File Name field above would generally be used, however if you wanted to specify an ID of the original media object, that can be specified here. If the original ID is in the form of a shot number of a roll of film, use Roll ID and Shot Number below.

Roll ID: The ID number of the film roll.

Shot Number: The shot number of the original image.

Source Image: Use this field to indicate the original image from which the current image is derived. An example is a detail from a painting that exists independantly from the larger image from which it came.

Digitized Asset

This refers to the digitized version of the original slide, negative, etc.

Digitization time

Asset digitization year: This must be 4 digits.

Asset digitization month: This is the name of the month in English.

Asset digitization day: This must be a number between 1 and 31.

Asset time note: This is for any notations about the digitization.

Digitized Asset Location Details

I.e. the DVD, digital file, etc…

Digitized asset storage location: This refers to the location of the actual DVD or CD, etc on which the asset is stored.

Digitized asset path data (DigitizedAssetPath): This refers to the location of the high quality original digital file – such as <Hitchcock/TibetMedia/Originals/>

Technical Metadata

Original Media Asset

Original film format (OriginalImageFormat): Options for this include color negative, color print, color slide, digital still, digital video, monchrome negative, monochrome print

Film Type:

Film Speed:

Capture device/camera maker (OriginalAssetCaptureDeviceMaker): This is the manufacturer of the camera, video camera or recorder, such as Fuji, Nikon, etc.

Capture device/camera model (OriginalAssetCaptureDeviceModel): This is the model of the camera, video camera or recorder, such as FinePixS1Pro, N80, etc.

Physical size of original photo (PhysicalSizeOriginalPhoto): This is used if the digital asset is a scan of an actual image. Sizes include: 3X5, 5X7, 8X10, 7X 9, 10X12, 4X6.

Image-Specific Data

This refers to the digitized version of the original slide, negative, etc, however it may also refer to a digital born asset.

Width (Width): This is the width in pixels of the highest quality version of the digital image.

Height (Height): This is the height in pixels of the highest quality version of the digital image.

Bit Depth (BitDepth): This refers to the number of bits used to describe the color of each pixel. Greater bit depth allows more colors to be used in the colour palette for the image. 8-bits per pixel will allow 256 colors, 8-bits per color component in a RGB image will allow 16777216 colors (256 X 256 X 256).

Compression (Compression): This is an algorithm that is applied to a digital image to reduce its file size. Compression can be either Lossy or Lossless.

Color Space (ColorSpace): This is the mathematical definition of color used for aiding communication of color information.

Photometric Interpretation (PhotometricInterpretation): This pertains to color balancing.

Digital Asset

This refers to the digitized version of the original slide, negative, etc, however it may also refer to a digital born asset.

Media type (MediaType): This is the type of asset being catalogued, such as an image, video, audio, etc.

Digital format (DigitalFormat): This is also known as the "file type" and includes such formats as JPEG, TIFF, RAW, etc.

Mime type (MimeType): This is a method used by web browsers to associate files of a certain type with helper applications that display files of that type.

File size (FileSize): This is the size in kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes of the digital asset. This will generally be automatically extracted from the file when it is imported into the image datbase.

Digitization device (DigitizationDevice): This refers to the device used to digitize an analog asset, eg, an Epson 1600 scanner. This may be automatically extracted from the file when it is imported into the image datbase.

Image correction: This is where the cataloguer notes that an image is in need of correction such as levels, color balance, etc. and white type of correction has been performed.

Image correction required (Correction): This indicates whether the image is in need of correction.

Image correction done (ImageCorrection): This indicates whether the image has been corrected.

Details of image correction (DetailsImageCorrection): This indicates the image that is needed or that has been undertaken.