Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/07

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Subject: [Leica] Negative/Slide Filing System
From: "Joe Codispoti" <joecodi@thegrid.net>
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 12:55:45 -0700
References: <3.0.6.32.20010728101804.00b0e530@pop.infi-net.mindspring.com> <3B65F765.E4E41E95@uni-bielefeld.de> <3B660264.545B7A0E@earthlink.net> <3B703D61.5375B826@uni-bielefeld.de>

The recent exchange about filing system reminds me of an incident, many
years ago when Joan and I went to visit her family in Iowa.

Aside of the fact that they made me cook a dinner for 8 just because Joan,
my girlfriend, bragged of my culinary skills (I got even, cooked liver), I
was able to observe the results of too casual a filing system.

Joan's father was a studio photographer and had lost a set of negatives to a
current job. We all looked everywhere to no avail, the irreplaceable
negatives were lost for ever.
I tried to persuade Frank to adapt my system of filing negatives and slides
but, stubbornly he refused to grasp the value of  a tried and true system.

Here, therefore, is how I have filed my negatives and slides for the past 30
years:

THE LOG
Every job, every shoot is logged and assigned a Job Number according to
chronology by year and number i.e. 01-089 (year 2001, job number 89 for the
year). Every Jan 1 the job numbers start anew from 001.
The log could be a simple binder with penned matriculation or a computer
program.

THE INDEX
Once logged the job is crossed referenced according to subject matter and
other pertinent data. A database program is great for this purpose. If using
a computer, logging and indexing are one operation.

THE ARCHIVE - NEGATIVES
Kept in envelopes large enough to hold negs, proofs, prints (Manila is
best). The envelope would show on the upper left corner the job number and
would be filed in chronological order for easy retrieval.

THE ARCHIVE - NEGATIVES
Clear Polypropylene pages in three-ring binders for budget archive. Each
page to hold slides of a single group i.e. "birds" (or even a single species
of birds). The page would be identified with a four-letter code i.e. BIRD or
MOUN for mountains. Vinyl pages should be avoided as the material is not
intended for archival purposes.

In all those years I have failed to find a previous job only when the
envelope was not returned to its proper place in the archive.

This system may seem cumbersome until we think in terms of years and
hundreds of shoots. For slides I do not use the logging/indexing part. Even
with many binders I can pinpoint any slide in minutes with the system
outlined above.

Joe Codispoti

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