Heartland

Have noticed that unlike me, people know a good bit about computers and the like around these parts. Does anyone know a suitable database that is good for pics and text that then can be put on the internet? I'm digitising a little visual arts archive project I'm responsible for. £300 is about the limits of my spending. I'm not that knowledgable about computer stuff it has to be said. Ta in advance!

Professional web monkey here!

First off, you shouldn't need to spend anywhere near £300.

If you give me a better idea of what you want, it will probably be pretty easy to build something out of open-source components. I could probably do with sticking some pro bono projects on my CV.

Hi Mark! That's great! Basically what we're doing at the moment is scanning gallery invites, slides, papers etc onto computer. We were using Excel but it dosen't seem to like pictures much. We're just looking for a database that we can have on computer at first then eventually when we get it all together put on the web. We haven't got a website just yet. For example if you were looking for artist X, you'd find info about what the archive contains plus some pictures. Essentially an alphabetical database with pictures. We're completely unfunded but I can (hopefully) get a few quid from the University in which i'm studying at for you. Ta again! Greg

I'll have a think...

markfiend wrote:I'll have a think...

thought I smelt burning

if you were mac-based this would be a simple option for storing the data:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/p ... maker.html

although there's no easy way to get a web site from that, afaik

as it stands i dont see an easy way you can store your info locally in a database (or whatever) and then build a website afterwards. that feels like a lot of duplication of effort.

your best bet would be to spend some time up front building a web-based system that allows you to upload it directly, and then create a front end for the public to view the stuff.

if all need is a website that is "good for pics and text", try any of the free blogging tools- wordpress, blogger etc

if you have a self-hosted wordpress (i'm sure me or mf can help with hosting space ) you can tweak the default stricture of a wordpress site to fit what what you need...

time spent up front building the framework will make it much easier later

I was thinking of wordpress too TBH.

Not Blogger or Blogspot though. Clicky

Ta for the help! I'll have a look at Wordpress and report back. Am pretty much a non-swimmer technology wise, so it may take a while to i figure things out!

Hi Mark, QB, have been doing a bit of digging around and have discovered there's free archival software called Archon, invented by American University archivist types that sounds if it's pretty much what we need. Ta for your help and suggestions though! Think I'll investigate further Wordpress as the abridged needs a website and as it's very cheap it might be of use. Ah the glamourous art world!

Cool glad to be of help