I thought I would throw in my two cents worth on the topic of
organizing or indexing ones collection of slides.
In the beginning, as Busse, I too organized all of my slides by road
and road number. When I was heavy into model railroading, this worked
extremely well because usually I was looking for pictures of a particular
engine or series of engine for modeling purposes. The problem with this
method is that when someone comes over and wants to see some pictures of the
Frisco on the spur of the moment, it is necessary to show them X number of
shots of engine 900, then 901, then 902, etc. Rather boring unless they are
looking for that particular type of equipment.
I have thought about the problem of needing to organize my slides
for several years now. At the present time, they sit in a number of yellow
and green boxes with the inclusive dates on the end of the box along with a
number (beginning with each year) and a brief discription of the locations
contained in the box. It works but the slides are unedited and therefore,
there is the problem of spur of the moment slide shows and it can become
difficult to find a particular picture.
All of my Frisco pictures are cataloged in a spread sheet program
which contains all of the pertinent information and is extremely handy for
looking up a particular shot. If one has almost as much time to catalog
slides as he does for taking pictures, I would highly reccomend this. I
even divised a numbering system for the slides so that they could recorded
chronologically. For instence, a slide shot on July 7th of this year would
be 970707.04334C. The first six digits are fairly easy to figure out.
Behind the decimal point, the first three digits are the roll number and the
next two digits the frame number. The letter is for those who have a power
winder and take numerous shots of the same picture in a sequence. In this
case, the slide would be from the 43rd roll taken that year, frame 34, and
the third picture in the sequence. A lot of information to enter, but it
does allow you to restore your database in a chronological order after
searching the database with different fields. Of course you computer
junkies will note that the year 2000 problem will occur if you don't at the
first two digits for the year. But like I said, I have been thinking about
this for some time, with no progress or difinitive decision made as to what
works best.
I do think the idea of the plastic pages makes a lot of sense for
quickly searching for a particular shot or searching in general to find
something for a slide show. But the pages can be expensive and the binders
to hold them can take up a tremendous amount of space. On the expense side,
I have approximately 30,000 slides. With each page holding twenty slides,
it would take 1,500 pages at $25 per hundred would be $375 for the pages.
With each three inch binder being about four dollars and holding thirty
pages, it would take fifty binders for another $200. So I could put the
collection in fifty binders for somewhere in the neighborhood of $600. But
then I need twelve and a half feet of shelf space to hold the binders, whcih
would mean buying two library units. Maybe I will leave them in the yellow
and green boxes for a while!
I think a combination of the metal Logan boxes and plastic pages may
be the answer. Edit the slides picking one each of the good shots and put
them in the plastic pages with identification, then store the rest of the
slides in the Logan boxes where 750 slides will fit into one box. Of course
any of this still requires one to mark each of the slides.
While on the subject, I do use ProSlideII to print labels for the
slides. It does a remarkably good job in connection with a laser printer
and their slide window labels. The program also has a database with it to
organize your slides. The only downside to ProSlideII is that the program
is still a DOS program and I have almost completely forgotten how to get
around in other than a windows environment. I have been told that they are
working on a windows version, but no time frame for availability.
One last piece of advise. No matter where or how you store your
slides, if they are in a place where water from a leaking pipe or hot water
heater could get to them, store those yellow and green boxes in larger
plastic boxes to prevent any possible damage. Two years ago, I had a hot
water heater spring a leak while I was out of town. The thing must have
leaked for close to a week before I returned home and discovered the
problem. The water by that time had soaked through the carpot so that
almost 80% of a 1,400 square foot house was soaking wet. Fortunately,
almost all of my slides were stored high enough that the water didn't get to
them. But if it had been a leak from an upstairs bathroom or pipe, the
damage would have been much, much greater. Even though my collection is
insured with a rider on my home owners policy, would you want to sell your
collection of slides and negatives to the insurance company?
--> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
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