[RNLD] What’s a good Database for recordings, transcriptions, photos etc?

[Nick Thieberger]

Hi Vaso,

This is a very topical issue. I know that IRCA is looking to develop a
database for media agencies and I have spoken with a few different cultural
centres and language centres who all face the same issue.

A spreadsheet is not a bad place to start, but the problem you quickly run
into is keeping consistent in the way that you enter information. That's
why a relational database is an advantage, so you can have a dropdown list
of people, places, topics and so on from what is already in the database.

I've also seen confusion about the difference between presenting material
(like in Storylines, Keeping Cultures, Ara Irititja or Mukurtu) and
describing and building a catalog of material. These are two different
things and a catalog is the first thing to do, it can feed the display
later. Another thing to keep in mind is that none of these actually
archives your records, so you still need to figure out how to make offsite
backups of digital data, and digitise all analog recordings.

At the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language we have a
working party looking at existing databases and deciding which ones could
be adapted for use in these kinds of agencies. I hope to report on results
soon.

Nick




On Mon, 18 Jun 2018 at 13:10, Alan Buseman <alan_buseman at sil.org> wrote:

> I am prejudiced of course, but I think Field Linguist's Toolbox is a
> general database
> system that can be used to organize almost anything. The database would not
> contain the recordings, transcripts and photos, but it would contain
> references to them.
> It is a free download.
>
> I will be interested to hear if people are using it in this way. If you
> want help setting up a
> particular database, we can help you. (Email Toolbox at sil.org).
>
> Alan Buseman
> Toolbox development and support
>
> On Sun, Jun 17, 2018 at 9:53 PM, Vaso Elefsiniotis <vasoe at optusnet.com.au>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone, I’m keen to know what databases language centres and other
>> collectors are using to catalogue their information. I’m aware of Microsoft
>> access and the old FileMaker Pro which has an annual fee of about $1000 ..
>> any suggestions? Pros and cons?
>> Cheers
>> Vaso Elefsiniotis
>> Consultant Linguist
>> Geraldton WA
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>
>
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