Image Banks

[Piotr Naskrecki]

Taxacomers,
I would like to add my two cents to the discussion on the image banks.
The Orthoptera database that Dan Otte and I have developed over the last
two years now contains over 7,000 images and more images will be added
soon. To organize the images we use a FileMaker Pro database, with each
image imported (embedded) into the database. Each image has a set of
associated information, such as when and where taken, what it represents,
copyright information etc. The disadvantage of this approach is that the
image file lose the their separate status by becoming just a value in a
graphic field of the database (of course, they can be easily "extracted"
and turned into a separate file). The advantages, however, are multiple.
First, such a database is searchable and porting it to the internet is a
matter of minutes (literally), as FileMaker Pro 4 and higher now sport a
built-in server (for both PC's and Macs).  Second, you save hard drive
space by consolidating individual files (each of which takes a certain
number of allocation blocks, often more than the file theoretically
requires) into one file. Third, backing up and copying one large file is
faster and less cumbersome than doing it with multiple, smaller files.
If you insist on retaining individual status of your image files,
FileMaker gives you the option of "linking" descriptive information in
the database to external files. It works in a similar manner as
Microsoft's OLE (embedded objects), i.e., a change to an external file
will be instantly reflected in the appearance of this file in the
database.

Another option available for cataloging images and their subsequent
publishing on the web is using a wonderful piece of Macintosh shareware
called iView. This image browser creates catalogs of images just by
dropping a folder of images on its window and can automatically create
beautiful HTML, web-ready catalogs.

I hope you will find this information useful.

Cheers,
Piotr Naskrecki

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Piotr Naskrecki
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut, Storrs CT 06269, USA

e-mail: pin93001 at uconnvm.uconn.edu

Orthoptera Species File Online (http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/Orthoptera)
- a database of the Orthoptera of the World

Katydids of La Selva Biological Station Costa Rica
(http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/interkey/titlepg)

Taxonomy and Collection Manager software
(http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/interkey/database.html)