Databases

In addition to 35mm slides, digital images are increasingly being used in the classroom and lecture hall to illustrate lectures. There are a fair number of databases for visual resource professionals to choose from for housing, cataloging and delivering digital images as well as other digital content (sound, moving pictures, etc.).

For the past few years, I've been working with the MDID (Madison Digital Image Database). While not relational, it's a great database in which to store digital images and has a very impressive image viewing component.

Here are some screen shots of the MDID database.

Another databse I've been interested in using is VireoCat (Visual Resources Open Cataloging Utility). Developed by Susan Jane Williams, it uses File Maker Pro 7.0 or higher and is free to download, as long as you have FMP.