Journal Interrobang's Journal: Information Overload: I need a library catalogue system 11
I have realised that I am suffering from information overload, especially pertaining to the streetcar project, which encompasses 500+ electronic documents, several books, a collection of internet bookmarks, various photographs, two videocassettes, some e-mails, and various other stuff. I am starting to realise that I need a database of some sort. A program like Library Master is looking good -- if expensive -- since I also have a digital library of over 10K items, and a personal hardcopy library of over 2000 items I'd like to catalogue. Since it's getting to the point where one single throwaway reference in some obscure 40 year old trade journal is actually a significant puzzle piece to me, I sort of need all this stuff indexed by keyword. Not all these things have indices! And I'm actually willing to do the scary amounts of data entry required. After all, once it's done, it's done, and the catchup work is negligible.
A sample information schema or record entry in my hypothetical database would look like this:
Keywords: Antitrust, EMD (Electro-Motive Division, Electro-Motive Company)
Source: "Is EMD a Monopoly?", Trains, June, 1961
Pages: 6, 11
Authors: Unknown
Notes: diesel locomotives, NY grand jury, indictment, repower, re-engine, Sherman Act, freight traffic, 12M tons/$211M waybills/1st 9 mos of 1959, market share, competitors out of business, percentage of diesels sold
I'm tempted to buy a copy of FileMaker Pro, although it's also rather expensive, since I know that one can easily set up fields in it that are string-searchable very easily (I've used it before to manage a database of ~1000 address/contact information labels, back when I was doing targeted e-mails to schools in South Asia).
Is there anything comparable that I can get for significantly less money (like, optimally, none)? If I spend $250-400 of my research budget on software to manage my information, that's less money that I have for source materials.
Please don't suggest Base, which comes with OpenOffice. I've tried using it already, and, unless you can get the Form Designer walking and talking (I can't, and the documentation is beyond bad -- Hey, OO documentation team! Screenshots, maybe? Got a bit of a Comprehensible Only If Known Problem going on, too!!*), the fields aren't as customiseable as I need. What I want is exactly what I've shown above, and I'm not willing to compromise on organization, since I know how I search for things (by important concepts or keywords), and I pretty much guarantee that would get me the results I want, 99.9% of the time.
___________
* One of these days, once I no longer have seventeen other projects on the go, I'm going to sign on to the OO documentation team.
A sample information schema or record entry in my hypothetical database would look like this:
Keywords: Antitrust, EMD (Electro-Motive Division, Electro-Motive Company)
Source: "Is EMD a Monopoly?", Trains, June, 1961
Pages: 6, 11
Authors: Unknown
Notes: diesel locomotives, NY grand jury, indictment, repower, re-engine, Sherman Act, freight traffic, 12M tons/$211M waybills/1st 9 mos of 1959, market share, competitors out of business, percentage of diesels sold
I'm tempted to buy a copy of FileMaker Pro, although it's also rather expensive, since I know that one can easily set up fields in it that are string-searchable very easily (I've used it before to manage a database of ~1000 address/contact information labels, back when I was doing targeted e-mails to schools in South Asia).
Is there anything comparable that I can get for significantly less money (like, optimally, none)? If I spend $250-400 of my research budget on software to manage my information, that's less money that I have for source materials.
Please don't suggest Base, which comes with OpenOffice. I've tried using it already, and, unless you can get the Form Designer walking and talking (I can't, and the documentation is beyond bad -- Hey, OO documentation team! Screenshots, maybe? Got a bit of a Comprehensible Only If Known Problem going on, too!!*), the fields aren't as customiseable as I need. What I want is exactly what I've shown above, and I'm not willing to compromise on organization, since I know how I search for things (by important concepts or keywords), and I pretty much guarantee that would get me the results I want, 99.9% of the time.
___________
* One of these days, once I no longer have seventeen other projects on the go, I'm going to sign on to the OO documentation team.
Two simple, free ways (Score:2)
The other advantage of this is that other
Not so simple... (Score:2)
I don't have the wherewithal to have the stuff scanned, either, and since a goodly lot of it is 20-60 years old, it won't OCR very well even if I did. If you have ever had to sit there and take s
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Could you possibly get in touch? My e-mail is shgstewart at gmail dot com.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, I've left an email where you requested. Hopefully it hasn't been consigned to your spam bucket.
Get higher baby (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Um, no. (Score:2)
I need something that works similarly to FileMaker Pro -- a standalone integrated database frontend/engine that's easy to use, completely customiseable, and allows string searches in any defined field, that I can use on my laptop (so lightweight is better) and that I can use wh
Ah right (Score:2)
I would honestly just use Excel, but I'm a masochist that way. Create some macro data entry windows if you don't feel like typing straight into the spreadsheet. Or Microsoft Access?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
haha, so true. When I tell claudia about using Excel for any data handling (she is a MS-SQL and VB programmer) she yaks all over the idea. Not pretty.