[Rockhounds] Database template?

[Joe Mulvey]

Hi Julie, Larry, Bryan & List,
I don't use access much at all, but from my experience at work I concur with Bryan that you do not want to insert the pictures into the database. A link is much better.
 
A note on the images: yes, file size these days seems to be overkill. Many apps, not just Photoshop but MS apps all seem to declare a minmum file size for *anything* even if there's nothing in it! OTOH, I would be more concerned linking to a high resolution photo of each specimen. Maybe you should have 2 versions of each photo - the thumbnail size and the photo quality version.
 
The cost of disk space these days is nothing. If you have 1000 specimens worth cataloging and dedicate 1 mb for 2 photos  of each specimen, then when completed, your database will need about 1 gig of space. You don't want to be opening up a one gig database all the time!
 
I use Paint Shop Pro version 5. It's 10 years old, but rock solid and has everything I could want in a photo editting app - incl. the right price. I think even version 12 is under $100.

I use Excel to catalog my collection. (At home I still use Office 97) I use almost exactly the same fields you listed, however I have a few more. 
 
First is a link to each species' page on mindat for each specimen.
Second is a cost assign to each mineral purchased.
Third is a value assigned for each minerals' current estimated worth by me. I actually assigned values in 2007 and named the field 2007 Value.
Fourth: a link to other articles on the internet such as I deem valuable for appreciatin of my specimen.
 
While I don't think I will be dying anytime soon (I have way too much to do and I haven't been to the KY fluorite localities yet!!!), I have seen mineral club members pass away and know that their collections are not addressed by their loved ones in any type of manner they would have wished for or expected. If you feel that your collection has a significant monetary value, you should catalog it, assign value, and specifically leave it to somebody who shares your love of minerals. I think every collector over values his/her collection but that's another discussion.

The real reason to use a database (my opinion) is to use the relational properties.
1. Create a table listing all mines, city, county, state, country. One source could be Gary Browns' database
 
2. Create a table of mineral specimens - mineral name, chemical formula, type locality, significant facts
 
These two tables are selected as dropdowns in your main specimen collection database.
 
Finally, I bring my excel file to work occasionally, open it in Excel 2003 and save the whole shebang as a website. Very cool what excel can do. I hope to use ASP to create a front end with search sorting and paging through things.
 
Hope some of this was helpful,
Joe
 


Joe Mulvey    Nashua, NH           USA
http://home.comcast.net/~mgag1
http://www.micromountersofnewengland.org
http://www.bostonmineralclub.org
http://www.fractalandphoto.com
http://www.youtube.com/joemulvey
 
 

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